Soulless
by Speklez
Summary: Edward didn't stop Bella's change in Arizona, but the vampire that wakes up wants nothing to do with him or the Cullens. Alone, scared, hungry, and injured, Bella leads a Volturi guard to do the unthinkable, and everyone will suffer as a result. OOC/Twilight Rewrite. Rated for pretty much everything
1. Chapter 1

"Get the floorboards!"

The words drew Bella's limited attention from Edward's golden eyes to the scene unfolding across the room. She could vaguely hear the conversation going on around her, but most of it didn't make it past the white noise. Something about making a choice before it was too late, and running out of time. She didn't know and honestly, she didn't care. Truth be told, it was a little hard to care about anything when it feels like slow moving acid was slowly moving through your veins.

She couldn't take her eyes off the sight of Emmett and Alice throwing body parts around them like they were nothing while Jasper took up the task of ripping the studio apart beneath his feet. She understood the reason behind it, and that the studio was going to be burnt to the ground anyway to cover up the fight, but damn it, this was a piece of her childhood, even if she wasn't very good at it, and he was destroying it before her eyes.

While Carlisle was trying to get the bleeding from the gash to Bella's leg to slow, Edward watch as her eyes began to go distant, listened to the way her breathing was starting to hitch. Shaking his head, he turned and looked at Carlisle. "I don't know if I can do this. She's already lost so much blood. How much more can she lose before she can't recover from it?"

Not looking away from the leg, Carlisle's brows drew. "She has, but she isn't beyond saving yet. She will be if his venom reaches her heart, though. There won't be anything we can do after that."

Nothing, absolutely nothing, could have prepared anyone for the scream that ripped from Bella's throat when that happened, either.

Not even Jasper, who was the one with the most experience with a changing human. Thousands over the course of his life let out that same noise because there is nothing in the world that hurts more than the moment your heart catches fire. Like everyone else, he stopped what he was doing and turned to look, watching as Bella's back arched and she let out another scream. Frowning with a slightly drawn expression, he shifted his eyes from the changeling to Edward and Carlisle, seeing the look of defeat on Edward's face, and the resigned one on Carlisle's. There really was no stopping the change at this point, only dealing with the fallout; and there would be a lot of it.

Jasper kept a half an ear on the conversation between the two males by the changing human as he went back to setting the fire to destroy the studio, an unsettling feeling forming in his gut as Alice and Emmett followed his original orders of burning James. He wasn't sure what it was, but shrugging it off as a side effect of the fact he hadn't dealt with a newborn since before he joined the coven, he joined the other two in finishing the job. He couldn't shake it completely though, and kept glancing back over his shoulder.

Carlisle simply set a hand on Edward's shoulder. Since there was no need for any extraneous medical intervention at this point, he allowed his mind to shift tracks and begin to formulate the plans on everything else that was going to need done now. It had been many years since he dealt with a newborn. However, the thing that he focused on was Bella was such a mild mannered human, and he crossed his mental fingers that aspect of her crossed over into her new life. There were many things he felt would work well to their favor, not the least of which was she actually knew what was happening to her, and her love for Edward. Those two things, hopefully, will allow him to work with her if no one else.

Sighing when his oldest companion looked at him, he gave Edward a look of understanding. "I'm sorry, Edward. I know you didn't want this for her." When Edward looked away, he frowned deeper. "There is a lot to do before she wakes up. We'll just take it one thing at a time, alright? For now, we have to get back to Washington."

Looking at Bella, Edward sighed. "Are you sure that's a good idea? What about the treaty?"

Scratching his brow, Carlisle made a noise in the back of his throat. "We don't have a choice. We have to keep up appearances because there is no shortage of people there that know of her connection to us. She has to disappear, and in order to keep from being the center of a human investigation, we have to be seen. There is plenty of wildlife in the area to keep her sated until Esme can work her magic and find a better place. As for the wolves, we didn't break the treaty, because we didn't bite her. There wasn't anything said about not being allowed to add to the coven, or we would have broken it with Emmett. For now, let's just focus on getting her out of here, and we'll figure out the rest as we have to."


	2. Chapter 2

Demetri stood in the middle of the Cullen's den, looking at his nails with his other arm crossed over his chest as Carlisle finished spinning his asinine tale. Using the nail on his thumb, he flicked a piece of dirt from under another one as he hummed in his throat, flicking his eyes to Felix, who looked as amused as he was.

Blinking slowly, when he reopened his eyes, he was looking at Carlisle. "Let me see if I understand you properly." Fully crossing his arms, he cocked a brow. "Once again you allowed your coven to get too close to humans, this time resulting in the change of one of said humans." Rolling his head slightly on his shoulders, he clicked his tongue. "Possibly the smartest thing that has ever come out of your mouth. Then, in all your coven's collective wisdom, thought the best place to take the changeling was her hometown, where literally everyone knows her. By far the dumbest thing to ever come from your mouth. You don't return a newborn to where she belongs, you imbecile. You take them as far away from there as you are able. Now, there is an unfed newborn, an unfed _infant_ newborn, running around, easily recognized, unsupervised, _and starving_ , that you cannot control because..." closing his eyes, his amusement unable to be hid any longer as the rest of the sentence was said. "Because you allowed her to watch as your coven killed her sire." Reopening his eyes, he grinned as he chuckled. "Wow."

Lips pressed in a thin line, Carlisle remained silent for a long moment. He knew the 'wow' was a clear stab at his intelligence, and he had to take the time to swallow his pride before he gave a sharp nod. "We didn't know at the time she was even aware of her surroundings, much less that Bella was able to comprehend anything she saw. We didn't find that out until she woke up."

While Demetri pinched the bridge of his nose, Felix took up the line of questioning. "And how long ago was that?"

Clearing his throat, Carlisle licked his lips. "Twelve days ago." Unable to stop himself, and not caring enough to try, Demetri snorted hard enough for his body to jerk from it, the noise breaking Carlisle from his more docile nature and actually putting annoyance in his voice. "I called Aro and requested help the moment we realized we couldn't handle her on our own."

Without missing a beat, Demetri locked his eyes on Carlisle's. "It took you ten days to realize what any other vampire would have known within an hour?" Grinning again when Carlisle jerked back at the question. Letting the situation run once again through his mind, Demetri shook his head, running his hand down his face, his amusement returning as he lowered his voice. "I cannot believe this level of idiocy exists." Once again glancing at Felix, he clicked his tongue as he looked back to Carlisle. "What is it you would have us do?"

Blinking once, Carlisle grunted at what he thought was obvious. "Help us find her before she kills a human."

There was more than one snort, but every last ounce of amusement left Demetri at that statement. His entire being morphed before the Cullens' eyes, and his eyes narrowed. "Oh, that's not happening. I promise you I will feed that infant if she hasn't overindulged herself at this point because of you. If you wanted that stopped, and her to feed from your unnatural food source, perhaps you should have called us sooner. This is where we stand." He then began to tick the important issues off on his fingers. "You cannot tell us a damn thing about her sire other than he was... how was it you put it? Ah yes... not very nice. She watched that sire be destroyed, and is justifiably pissed off at the ones responsible, meaning she will run from every last one of you any time you get close for fear you will kill her, too."

It was then his voice began to rise, taking on a distinct undertone that had Carlisle swallowing a noiseless gulp. "You didn't change her clothing, meaning there is an infant running around constantly surrounded by the scent of blood that you have gone out of your to keep from feeding on anything, at all, whatsoever for twelve goddamn days. You involved a pack of animals in something they have no business sticking their noses in, meaning you have all but sentenced that girl to death because of your irresponsibility."

Pointing to each gifted vampire in turn, "that one cannot read her mind. That one cannot see her. That one cannot feel nor manipulate her emotions. Do you realize what that means? No? Allow me to point it out for you, Dumbass. All of that means I very likely do not have access to her mind to find her the easy way, you cannot tell us where to even begin to look for her because you _lost_ her, nor can you provide me with a scent in which to hunt. So, Cullen, I ask again... what the fuck do you want us to do?" By the time he was done, Demetri was nearly snorting like a bull.

Carlisle opened his mouth to respond, but just as quickly closed it because nothing came to mind. This was about as bad of a situation as it could be, and for what was probably the first time in his life, he didn't know what to do. He hadn't not known what was going to happen for over 60 years, or what options he had to obtain the most favorable outcome, and he didn't have that anymore. And it wasn't even just her that Alice had lost the ability to see, it was the entire coven. The only thing he had been able to come up with as to why that was, was because of how intertwined in their lives Bella was.

It was the second day of Bella's change that Alice let out a scream that rattled the windows, shrieking for the heavens to hear that she couldn't see Bella anymore, and that was quickly followed by the admission from Jasper he could no longer feel her. He had always known Bella was special; that was proven when even as a human Edward couldn't hear her thoughts. Carlisle hadn't been able to find any answers at to why that was, either before her change or after. He had looked, high and low, even calling an old friend that was gifted in the way of being able to decipher the gifts of others, but even that had been mostly a dead end.

As her heart started to stutter, Jasper had grabbed Emmett and pulled him to stand next to him and in front of the girls, freshly woken vampire being known to be unpredictable and prone to attacking the closest thing to them. Carlisle had raised basically his whole coven, but Jasper had far more experience than he would ever have, and ever since they returned from Arizona, Jasper had been on edge; more so when his empathy had stopped registering Bella's emotional climate.

It wasn't a shock to anyone but Jasper when she didn't dive right at them when her eyes opened, but that was merely the calm before the storm. She had blank eyes when she looked at Rose and Esme, a spark when it came to Edward and himself, but they ignited into black infernos when they landed on Jasper, Emmett, and Alice. It was those three she attack, and with a vengeance.

He, Edward, Rosalie, and Esme could only stand there and watch in horror as Bella did whatever she could to sink her teeth into any of the other three, and it was only Jasper's immense knowledge of newborns she didn't succeed in removing body parts, but she was quite successful in doing permanent damage to all of them in the way of teeth scars before Jasper was finally able to get his hands on her in a restraining hold, but that was ended with little more than Bella swinging her leg back and her heel connecting with Jasper's balls.

She was gone the moment his grip loosened enough for her to break the hold.

The sound of breaking glass spurred Edward into moving, and he was able to block her path before she hit the trees. He had watched through the window as Edward tried to talk her down, but for the first time ever, she flatout refused to listen to a word he said. She screamed over him, telling him if he was with them, he was against her. No one understood the gravity of the situation until Bella finally revealed her motivation behind the attack. It was then they found out she had seen who killed her maker, and while there was very likely no love lost for that vampire, he was still her sire, her venom was still his, and she was in the right, even if she didn't know why.

That, however, didn't stop the lot of them from trying to reason with her, to 'wrangle the newborn' as Jasper had called it. Turned out, that was all they could do. They spent all their time on the defensive, trying to keep her from getting within scenting distance of Forks.

On day seven of the standoff with her, Carlisle came to the conclusion he had no choice but to call the wolves for help in keeping Bella away from the town. The Elder agreed, but told him without mincing words that as soon as Bella was caught, they were to leave, and never return. The Tribal Elder was very good friends with her father, and had spent everyday since Bella 'died' trying to console Charlie. So far as he was concerned, the treaty was void, it was open season on the vampire population, and he didn't give a solitary fuck who it was that bit Bella. She was their responsibility, and they allowed it to happen, so to him, they were just as guilty as the one that did it.

With a nearly helpless stance, Carlisle made a noise in the back of his throat. "I can explain."

Felix rolled his eyes, but the muscles in Demetri's jaw visibly ticked. He was able to bite back the snarl, but not the growl as he talked through clenched teeth. "No, you can't. You have the gall to call me and my guards beasts and barbarians, but neither I nor anyone under my command deliberately starves an infant for two fucking weeks. Most assuredly not one that doesn't belong to one of us. Whether her sire is alive or not is beyond irrelevant. You took her in, therefore you took on every last responsibility that comes with her. And what have you done with that? You have done everything in your power to ensure she doesn't feed, including calling on the help of wolves that are specifically designed to tear us apart. Your very first call should have been to us when you realized this was out of your ability to handle because, and this is a very well known fact, out of control newborns happen to be a specialty of ours due to the fact we stay out of the private affairs of other vampires.

"Barring her knowledge of us prior to her change, which isn't technically against the law, that girl is innocent. You, and every single member of your coven, are guilty of torture, which is _very_ illegal. I don't give a single rat's ass what you and yours wish to choke down to sustain yourselves, but humans have always been, and always will be, our natural food source; what every single vampire alive is drawn to eat. However, in all your infinite wisdom, and in your ridiculous attempt to force your feeding style on a newborn, you have instead all but guaranteed a massacre. You intentionally starved not just a newborn, but a fucking female, possibly to the point of madness. And not just any female, but one that trusted you with everything she had."

Taking a very threatening half-step forward, Demetri's eyes narrowed into near slits as his lips pulled away from his teeth. "Remind me again which one of us is supposed to be the 'bad guy' here. You have lost every ounce of moral high ground, you son of a bitch, and I will personally ensure you are all judged and sentenced accordingly."

Every one of the Cullens had both looked and felt fully chastised by Demetri's words.

Having known the tracker for as long as he has, Felix decided it was time to give him a little break from dealing with the Cullens before he snapped and did something foolish. Demetri very rarely got riled up like he was, but in this case, Felix could understand it. He was normally cold and distant when dealing with a creature not of the Volturi coven, because they weren't his direct responsibility outside settling whatever it was he was summoned to settle. However, that said, he had absolutely no tolerance for anyone harming someone that had no ability of defending themselves. While the changeling could defend herself physically against maybe two of the coven at a time, there was no way for her to defend herself against what they instead decided to do, and there was zero chance of her defending herself against a shape-shifter.

Straightening his spine and standing to his full height, Felix crossed his arms and looked at Carlisle. "While you still haven't told us what it is you want us to do, so far as Master Aro is concerned, it is irrelevant. The two of us will find the newborn, and for as long as it takes us to do so, you are all to stay here. Not just on the property, in this house. Any loss of life, beit from her feeding or death from exposing herself, is on your head. It was your decision to bring a changeling within ten miles of human habitation, therefore her uncontrollable actions are your judgement. To make one thing perfectly clear... our arrival here does not dissolve you of your responsibility to that vampiress, not until we find her and have her in our custody. Until that happens, you are fully liable for whatever she does, and whatever is done to her. Then, once the newborn is caught, you will ALL be coming back to Italy with us to stand before the Masters."

Finally releasing the snarl that had been building for the last fifteen minutes, Demetri lost his legendary temper at the uproar when Felix informed them of Aro's command when the two of them left the palace. All seven coven members thought they had something to say against the ruling, and they did so as loudly as they could. Voice rising above them all with a pitch that rattled the vast number of windows in their frames, Demetri barked, " _SILENCE_!"

The single word was enough to shock most into following the command, but Carlisle being Carlisle, thought he could not only defuse the situation, but talk himself and his family off Aro's radar. However, the moment he opened his mouth, he found himself slamming into a wall across the room. Hitting the floor, both hands came up and clamped over his mouth, his wide eyes staring at the demon that resided within the Volturi tracker that stood where he had just been, his fist still hanging in the air. There was not a sliver of white in his eyes, and his teeth were fully bared, his teeth clamped and jaw set, a deep growl rumbling the floor.

Demetri watched from the corners of his eyes as the males present went on the defensive of the females, but his eyes were locked dead on the Head of Coven. Carlisle's mate went to his side, but the tracker didn't move a twitch. Instead, he sniped. "Silence means shut the fuck up. Next time you open your mouth, I will knock your teeth down your goddamn throat. Am I understood?"

When the vampire wisely remained quiet, Demetri growled out a snort as he rolled one shoulder, trying to dispel the pent up tension in his neck. Not calming in the slightest, he tugged at the cuff of his dress shirt and jacket until it laid properly against his skin once again. "Our orders are not for pissants like you to question. You will be presented to the Masters once that vampiress is caught if I have to rip each and every one of you into pieces to do so. You do not live so far on the fringe of vampiric society that the rules do not apply to you. You are not special, no matter what you think. The lot of you _are_ held to the same standards as even the most vile of our kind whether you like it or not. Is that, in anyway, unclear?"

There was a tightness to his stance that had everyone present shaking their head, but keeping quiet. Demetri merely crossed his arms. "Major Whitlock, tell me... as the only other present with experience in dealing with a volatile newborn, how long does it take one to level a town the size of this one."

Jasper, who stood in front of Alice, slowly stood from his defensive crouch, his lip curled in the corner. "Not long, but Bella isn't volatile."

Turning to look at the man of legend, Demetri cocked a brow. "What would you call it?" Then he tilted his head in thought. "Perhaps your diet has emaciated more than just your body and has had the additional side effect of lowering your IQ. _All_ newborns are driven by two simple instincts; to feed and to survive. What they lack is the ability to do so properly without guidance. You used to know that." Hearing Jasper grunt, Demetri returned his eyes to Carlisle, who had gotten back to his feet. "Make no mistake, I will find that vampire, but it won't be by nose. It will be by following the screams."

Watching Demetri and Felix turn and make to leave the house, Carlisle tried to talk, but his mouth was on fire. So much so it actually caused Carlisle physical pain to move his lips. Still he spoke. "She doesn't know you. She'll run from you, too."

Pausing before he was out the door, Demetri turned halfway back, his face void of all emotion, and his voice offhand. "While it might be true newborns aren't exactly known for trusting those they don't know, you have seen to it she lost the small ability she had to have a rational thought. She is now driven by desperation and hunger. She will put her life on the line and go to, and ultimately with, anyone that offers her a meal. For her sake, you had better pray to whatever God will have you, we find her before another vampire does." Then, before leaving, and almost as an afterthought, he glanced over his shoulder. "Remember, you are not to leave this house. I will know if you do. Trust me when I said, you do not want me to come after you if you try to run."

Closing the door behind him, Demetri bounded down the front steps, reaching into his pants pocket and pulling out the keys to the car in the driveway. For the moment, he ignored Felix, who was leaning against the side with his arms and ankles crossed, and went to the trunk.

Felix followed his boss with his eyes, and waited until he was busy digging around in his bag before he spoke. "So, how exactly do you plan on finding the newborn?"

Humming in his throat as he found the small leather parcel he was after, Demeri closed the trunk lid, moving his jacket to the side and sliding the tabs on the parcel around his belt and clipping it in place. Moving to the side of the car, he leaned next to Felix as he pulled a handkerchief from the inner pocket of his jacket. Licking his palm, began to run the cloth through his now closed, wet fist. "I don't know. The recent rains have washed away any scent trails there used to be, and the air is too wet to hold a new one for long. She is too young to have a scent of her own, and I have no idea what that James guy smelled like, so even if by some miracle I happen to find a scent, I have no way to know if it's hers or not." Holding the handkerchief out with two fingers, he looked at the ground with a thoughtful face. "Smell."

Doing as he was told, Felix dipped his head and scented the cloth, shaking his head as he leaned back. "Still smells too much like your cigarettes." Opening his cloak, he pulled his own kerchief from the front pocket of his suit jacket with as little contact as possible and held it out to Demetri. "Use mine." His nose wrinkled when he saw Demetri spit in his hand, but said nothing, knowing he wasn't getting it back once he handed it over anyway.

Stuffing his back into his jacket, Demetri's eyes went distance as he let his mind wander, trying to figure out the best way to go about finding what basically amounted to an invisible vampire as he ran Felix's handkerchief through his venom filled hand. Venom held the highest concentration of a vampire's scent, and he was trying to erase the multiple scents that the cloth held.

It was silent for a few minutes before he hummed in his throat. "The options I see we have is call in reinforcements to blanket the area and flush her out, start at the most important place to her and work our way out until we get lucky, or set a trap for the infant. The issue with the first is we are on her turf, and that many unknown vampires translates to a threat. The last thing we need is to put an unknown newborn with an unknown sire on that kind of defense since there is no clear reason currently to destroy her, and I'd like to not be the reason there becomes one. The issue with the second is relatively self-explanatory. It's nearly impossible to get lucky like that with an infant, and with the dogs running around, the chances she's gotten close enough to said important place are pretty minimal. The issue with the last one is those fucking dogs. Any trap we set to catch her is very easily thwarted if they interfere, or use it for themselves, and we both know they will do one of the two." Once again holding out the cloth, he still didn't look up from the ground. "Now?"

After Felix nodded with an 'all you', Demetri folded it over and tucked it into his back pocket as another idea struck him. Reaching into his inner jacket pocket, he grabbed his cigarette case and lighter. As he pulled one out, he allowed himself to explore the idea a moment longer. Placing his cigarette between between his lips, he spoke as he light it, "Or..."

Looking up at his partner, he took his first hit and continued the thought as he blew out the smoke from his nose. "We could use the dogs." Drumming his fingers on his arm, he then cocked his head as Felix's brows shot up. Pushing himself off the car, he turned to face the other vampire and began to think out loud. "We know it's been more than two days since the last time these morons have seen the girl, but I'll go out on a limb and say it has not been that long since the wolves have. Since there have not yet been reports of missing humans, or any indication of a discovered body that could possibly belong to a hungry newborn, we know for certain they aren't letting her anywhere near the town."

His own burly arms crossing over his chest, Felix hummed in his throat. "Just because there are no reports, doesn't mean she hadn't crossed the paths of hikers, hunters, or a group of campers. This place is more or less designed for such activities, and for all we know, there could be bodies everywhere that clearly belong to a hungry newborn."

Waving his hand, Demetri put his cigarette between his lips. "No, no, no... I'm not saying she hasn't fed. I honestly hope she has, if only to make our life easier when we finally find her. What I am saying is, if the dogs have gotten within ten, maybe fifteen feet of her between storms, they could have gotten close enough to her for her scent to get on them." Taking a hit, he licked his lip after removing his smoke and locked his eyes on Felix's. "All I need to know is what the fuck she smells like, and I can find her without an issue."


	3. Chapter 3

Leaning against a tree, Demetri actually allowed himself to enjoy his smoke while he waited for his cue. The last few hours had been extremely informative, and more than once over that time, he had had to readjust his plans on capturing the newborn.

He had her scent.

He knew where she was.

He still didn't move a muscle.

It was in everyone's best interest she didn't see him yet, and since his scent blended into the world around him, he wasn't at all worried she would pick it up as she continued to run the forest.

She turned out to be commendably talented in the way of evasiveness, and had even given him a lot of grief and taken him on one hell of a run, something less than a handful had ever been able to do. She hadn't seen him, only knew she was being chased, and her newborn instincts being in overdrive as they were, she didn't question the gut feeling to run; just did it. But, because she hadn't seen him worked well to his advantage. He wasn't an enemy to her just yet, and that was the only thing that would make catching her possible.

For the fact he knew she had been injured at some point by one wolf or another, he had to give her due credit for the way she just kept moving, trying to her best to avoid once again coming into contact with those claws. No matter how much of him wanted to blame the wolves for this, they were simply following their own instincts and keeping a very real threat away from the humans they were created to protect. He was still firm in his stance of what he said to Carlisle when it came to the fact he had actually called them in, but the truth was, they would have gotten involved anyway.

It was that involvement Demetri had hoped to use to find the girl, and in a way, that's exactly what happened; it just wasn't the way he would have liked. It was his plan to get close enough to scent one of the animals and pick up the scent he was looking for that way, but what happened instead was Felix came across a large splatters of venom and blood when the two had split up and gone in search of the wolves. Needless to say, Demetri was less than thrilled to get that particular phone call, but he was able to get the girl's scent, and that was when the hunt was on.

The site he had been called to was just under two miles from the outskirts of the town, and barely out of the range of newborn senses. Had she gotten any closer, there would have been a much different first encounter between this Bella and that wolf due to the fact she was starving and would have fought to the death to get to whatever human she picked up. Since there was blood found as well, the animal didn't get away unscalthed, but he was sure whatever injury it did get did little more than piss it off since there wasn't much.

Something Demetri never let leave his mind was, the girl wasn't actually running as blind as it seemed, and for several reasons. One was, she was on her home turf. Whether she knew the layout of the woods or not didn't matter. She absolutely knew where she was, and she knew there was a town in the area. Another was, she had been on her own way longer than the recommended amount of alone time for one her age, and she was learning by trial and error; which was probably the worst way to learn. She was discovering everything her new body was capable of by putting it through a gauntlet of failures. The only arguably good thing she was learning was how to avoid threats to her life, but with the only interactions she's had thus far being those that killed her sire, an animal that harmed her, and Felix, what she was actually learning was everything in this world fell into that particular category.

The first handful of weeks in a newborn's life are the most formative, and it was during that timeframe one had the best chance of getting in that newborn's good graces and earning their trust; two things that were slipping further away with every moment she was on her own. While the Cullen coven was adamant to the fact this girl was acting extremely out of character, as far as Demetri was able to tell, she wasn't acting anyway abnormal to any other underfed newborn. Her actions were still relatively predictable. She was just hungry, thus desperate; proven when Felix, who is easily three if not more times her size, nearly caught her, and she fought back; something she would have known better than to do if she was in her right mind.

However, and intentional on Felix's part, he cornered her. Under normal circumstances, and what he was expecting, she should have been the one to back down because his sheer size said she didn't stand a chance. Her level of hunger though, showed itself, changing the game and she reacted in an understandable fashion according to Felix. That was also when the level of her injury was discovered, and it was then the enforcer who backed off. Sure, he lost a hand and boasts a few new bite marks, but it wasn't something he didn't know was a possibility when he did so.

When Demetri learned the injury Bella sustained was to her face, chest, and shoulder, there was nearly no end to the expletives that came out of his mouth, but it sent his mind in a different direction. He didn't know if the clawing to her face would hinder her ability to bite, thus her ability to feed, but Felix made it very clear the ones to her shoulder greatly diminished her mobility of that arm. Those were not injuries that could be left unattended for long if they were going to be undone, so against his own desire to stay away from the dogs, he went straight to the one he knew where to find the moment he smelled the spilled blood.

It was a very short, very one sided conversation in which Demetri informed the silver wolf since he was the one that injured the infant, who had no idea what she was doing, so grievously, he would be the one to help put her into a situation where he could remove her from the area without further incident. As further incentive to work with him, Demetri also told the wolf that if he didn't, not only would he make sure that wolf and his pack were the infant's first meal, he would then help the changeling level the town the dogs were so dead set on defending. There was certainly a dare in his tone, and one the wolf thought better than to question. All Demetri told him was where to chase her, and he would take it from there.

He didn't, however, reveal what he had come up with in order to get possession of the newborn.

This was very much a work smart, not hard scenario; something the Cullens could have done days ago had they used the half of a brain they had between them. It's a simple conclusion to keep the ones she's terrified of away from her, and use the ones she doesn't know to lure her into a situation they could easily control, opposed to chasing her all over God's green Earth for days at a time... or nearly two weeks in this case. It should have been common sense when one thing didn't work to try something else, but neither they, nor the wolves, took the time to assess each individual aspect of the situation, and adjust their plans accordingly. All they did was make her scared of all of them, and leading her to believe she had no allies. They kept right on doing the same thing, hoping for a different result, which wasn't going to happen with a two week old newborn. It hardly happened with a century old vampire someone was trying to cage, and something every one of them should have realized. Then again, those who are insane don't usually know they're insane, so Demetri didn't expect them to conclude their continued tactic was the definition of insanity.

At the start, having no actual idea what they were up against, both of the Volturi guards did each take a separate opportunity that presented itself, but they both backed off their respective encounter the moment it was apparent it wasn't going to end with favorable results. They would both need to be able to work with her at some point, and her associating both of them to what is going to be the most traumatizing time of her life was the literal last thing they needed. It was going to be hard enough for Felix in the future because as the situation with him stood, she did technically best him in a fight. For Demetri, while scent-wise he was all but a ghost when in nature, he did have a somewhat sensible presence that was unique to him. Though he did know she never laid eyes on him, he couldn't be positive she didn't sense him.

All of that led him to where he was, in a very remote area of the woods, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed, just waiting. He was keeping very close tabs on the wolf, who was heading where he was told to chase the girl. All Demetri had to do now was wait, and hopefully, everything would fall into place.

It was far past the point this stand off with a child came to an end, so whether Demetri's plan worked as intended or not, he had no intention of getting that close without capturing the tiny pain in the ass. However, because of everything the girl had been put through since the moment she woke up, if this didn't work, Demetri was also resigned to the fact there could possibly be one Hell of a fight. He didn't have any desire to hurt her more than she was, but he also had no desire to continue to play this ridiculous game of hide and seek with her any longer, either.

A mile away from where Demetri stationed himself, Bella wasn't only running out of places to run, but the desire to do it. She couldn't understand why she was still being chased by the overgrown dog she had had a very painful encounter in the days prior. At this point she wasn't even trying to get to her house for new clothes. She was just trying to get _past_ Forks, not into it, but they wouldn't listen to her.

She knew why that was. She wasn't human anymore, and clearly, they didn't like that.

It wasn't just the wolves, either. There was also the Cullens, though she hadn't seen them in a while. Hadn't crossed any of their scents in a while, either. It had rained that morning, so she figured that was why, but that wasn't the first rain-fall since they got back from Arizona; just the first one that washed away any trace of them. There was a voice in the back of her mind that told her to stay away from them, that they were dangerous, but how could that be? They were always so nice to her, even when they didn't have to be. How could they be a danger to her? She didn't understand it, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake either the paralyzing fear or heart numbing anger that came from thinking about them.

Then... there was the wolves.

Up to this point, they had only kept her from getting to close to town, but now they seemed to have run out of patience when it came to her presence, and decided it was time to either run her out, kill her, or die trying.

 _Run, run, run..._ that was all that was going through her mind as she closed the distance between herself and the gorge, but she had no idea what she was going to do when she got there. She knew it was too far to jump over, having learned that the hard way, and she also knew she wouldn't be safe from the dogs until she was on the other side. The bridge, or what she dubbed the bridge anyway, was a half mile east, and there was no way she was going to get to that before one of the three wolves got to her. She could feel the fact she wasn't as fast as she had been; something she actually noticed days ago. Every day that past, it seemed she was just a little slower, her reaction time was a little less sharp, her vision and hearing a little less defined. Everything was on the decline, and she already learned she couldn't defend herself against the claws on the dogs.

Well, everything was on the decline but the burning in her throat. That was prominent as ever, and growing every moment.

Along with learning that very painful lesson about those claws came the stark realization she wouldn't be able to defend herself at all against anyone, because that lesson about those claws resulted the loss of one of her arms. Oh, it was still there, but for all the good it did her, it might as well not be. She had absolutely no idea how she got past that behemoth of a man that she ran into, but she certainly didn't want to test whether or not she would get that lucky again.

She could see the end of the line fast approaching, and she could hear the growls and snarls as one of the wolves closed in behind her. She closed her eyes against the sun that started to break through the thinning trees, but that was done at the wrong moment. She caught her foot under a thick tree root and, though it was ripped out of the ground, it did take her by enough surprise for her to hit the ground hard on her face.

She left divots in the forest floor, leaving broken rocks and splintered branches in her wake as she tumbled several feet before she came to a sliding stop on her clawed shoulder. She had been under two very apparent misimpressions. The first being vampires were graceful creatures that tended to stay on their feet, and other was she wouldn't feel pain any longer, but son of a bitch, was she knocked for a loop or two along the way.

Her movements were slow as she blinked her vision clear. Shaking her head, she rolled from her stomach to her back, a whimper in her throat at the sight of the same wolf that nearly sliced her in half, crouched with his chest nearly touching the ground, his lips pulled back and exposing every last one of the razors he called teeth. She watched as he seemed to shift his weight from one paw to the next, his muscles coiling in preparation to pounce. She dug her heels into the ground, trying to put more distance between them, but with only one arm to help move her body, she was pretty sure she looked more like a flopping fish out of water than she did a vampire at that moment in time.

She sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth and snapped her head to the side when the wolf lunged at her, positive she was about to die, only to whip back around when she heard a high pitched yelp full of pain. Her onyx eyes were wide as she watched someone she had never seen before throw the creature by the scruff of its neck into the side of a tree. She heard something crack on impact, and her eyes followed the body as it dropped to the ground.

She watched with an unneeded, bated breath for it to get back up, but when it remained still, she moved her eyes to the man that was now standing between her and the silver wolf that she had been running from. His head was fully turned to look at her, his face blank of all emotions as he calmly fixed his sleeves.

His fault; he never should have trusted the boneheaded animal to follow a simple command. It wasn't really any matter to Demetri, however. It wasn't like the stupid beast was difficult to deal with. It was hardly more than a cub, and he knew when dealing with children of any race or breed, there always had to be some level of expectation they won't listen. He hadn't killed the prick, but while that injury healed, the pup was going to wish he did. Though, turnabout being fair play and all, the tracker was of the opinion the fucker deserved it for what he did to the infant vampire.

This was the first time he had gotten a look at the newborn from the front, and she was far worse off than he thought. Words rarely did visuals justice, so when he was told of the claw marks, he didn't expect them to be as deep as they were, or exactly where they were. It also confirmed his greatest fear; even given the opportunity to feed, there was no chance she was going to have an effective bite. It was going to take years to undo that kind of damage, possibly decades if ever at all, and even if the damage was able to be undone, she would spend the rest of her life carrying some very nasty scars.

Once he was done with his inspection, he turned to face her fully, sliding off his jacket as he slowly closed the distance between them. Her clothing was shredded and completely ineffective as covering, so when he was close enough, he crouched. After pulling his phone from the inner pocket and clipping it to the holder on his belt, he held it out for her take. He kept his face even and clear of his emotions, hopefully conveying he wasn't going to hurt her. He was pissed off like he had never been before, but his anger wasn't for her, and he didn't want to her to think otherwise.

She was clearly, fully, defenseless, but that didn't mean she wouldn't give it a shot if he didn't tread lightly. Looking her in the eyes, his suspicion about not having access to her mind was confirmed when there was a lack of the spark at the base of his skull that always accompanied making eye contact with someone for the first time. His voice was low and level when he spoke to her. "I've been looking for you, Néos."

Bella could feel her body vibrate she was shaking so hard in the face of this man that had no problem, at all, chucking one of those wolves into a tree like it was little more than it's smaller counterpart. There was no threat to his position, and there was no vibe coming from him that he was out to hurt her, but that didn't mean shit.

Shoving herself as far away from him as she could with one push of her foot, she swallowed hard, her voice giving away her nerves. "Who are you?" She saw his lips twitch, but she could see amusement light in his eyes.

All he did was let out a breath from his nose. "Demetri... and you really should put this on." To drive the point, he nodded towards her.

She didn't really want to take her eyes off this unknown man, but it was his tone and actions that caused her to glance down, letting out a gasped 'eep' at the fact she was all but flashing him the twins. Eyes shooting back up, she noticed he had averted his eyes, and she cleared her throat as she leaned toward him slightly, reaching out with her right arm. But, where he was, she had to reach over her body because she couldn't move her arm. She realized she would have to get closer, and she bit her lip. Was it really worth it? She had a much better rack these days. Was covering herself up really necessary?

After roughly a full minute of personal debate, she decided that yes, it was. So, so slowly it was like she wasn't moving, she inched herself closer to the guy that hadn't moved a muscle since he crouched, still holding out his offering. Bella didn't get a millimeter closer than was necessary, and when she got her fingers around the black canvas of his jacket, she just as slowly took it from his grasp with a quiet, "Thank you." She saw him nod, but he didn't say anything else for a long moment as she struggled to situate his jacket around her shoulders with her one arm.

From the corner of his eye, he watched the struggle she was having, and tsked. "Would you like some help?" He didn't move for the forty-seven seconds she remained silent, and didn't stand when she acquiesced, merely shifted into a better position, placing his knee on the ground to stabilize himself. He did, however, pause slightly when she flinched away from him, but when that was all she did, he went ahead and leaned toward her. Slowly and gently, he maneuvered the arm she couldn't move into the sleeve, pulling it up into place before slipping it around her back and holding it open so she could do the same with the arm she could.

While Demetri was helping her into his jacket, Bella looked at him, her bottom lip still between her teeth. It wasn't until he was buttoning it closed she finally released her lip and spoke to him again. "Why were you looking for me?"

Leaving the button at the top undone, Demetri returned to crouched position, draping his hands over his thighs, looking back at her face. "Because you're not allowed to run around by yourself. It's not just dangerous for you, but for everyone you come in contact with."

Biting into her inner cheek, Bella then nodded to the explanation. Seemed logical enough. She then swallowed another mouthful of venom. "How did you know I needed looked for?"

At that question, Demetri clicked his tongue. There was certainly no point in lying about it, but there was always the risk of her getting pissed off. In the end, he went ahead and told her exactly how he knew. "Carlisle." He saw her eyes ignite at the name, but pressed on. "He called my boss when his coven lost you. I happened to be very good at locating those others are incapable of finding, so I was sent to do just that." Tilting his head slightly to the side, he then hummed in the back of his throat. "While it is certainly impressive you've given seven vampires and three shifters the slip for as long as you have, I do believe you have spent enough time on your own."

Bella, completely convinced she knew what he was going to say, cut in before he could tell her he was there to take her back to the Cullens. She jumped to her feet and began to back away, preparing to run. "You're not taking me back there. I won't go, and you can't make me."

Demetri stood as well, fully planning on cutting her off before she got too far if she did run, but all he did for the moment was cross his arms. "I assure you there is very little in the department of what you can do to stop me from doing anything, but for curiosity's sake, what are you going on about?"

Retreating another half step, Bella actually hissed. "You're not taking me back to the Cullens. I refuse to have anything to do with them."

Demetri didn't even attempt to silence the snort. With a roll of his eyes, he then grinned. "No shit. I also happen to know exactly why that is. The question is..." he lifted a challenging brow, "do you?" He saw something flash through her eyes, and he reached up and rubbed his temple. "You have absolutely no idea why they invoke such a negative reaction in you, do you?"

Stopping in her retreat, Bella crossed her arms, looking down at her dirty feet. "No, I know why, I just don't understand the why." Leaving her head lowered, she lifted only her eyes, locker her's on Demetri's. "James was an asshole. He was trying to kill me. He lured me into a trap, using me as live bait. I don't care he's dead. Or, at least I don't want to. I honestly think the world is a better place for it. But..." pausing and shaking her head, "but even still, any time I see, or even think about Emmett, Alice and Jasper, I am just overcome with this... boiling rage that fills this endlessly empty void that has been there since I woke up. Nothing makes it go away but the thought of James, but all it does is make me... long for him."

Demetri remained silent while she spoke, nodding along as she did so. Also during her explanation, he leaned his shoulder on a tree, and kicked his foot up by the toes. When she finished, he nodded one more time. "Would you like to know why that is?" It took her a moment to do it, but she did eventually nod, and Demetri shrugged. "He's your sire, and you're in mourning."

Bella actually bulked at the overly simple statement. While she was only able to actually move the muscles on half her face, her disgust was still pretty clear. "I know he is, but I'm not..."

Demetri, completely disagreed, shaking his head and cutting her off. "Yes, you are. You are twelves days old, Néos, so there is no way you could possibly understand what you lost. You don't have to like your sire, and for obvious reasons, most of us don't. However, love him or hate him, that does not change what he is to you."

Even though she was mostly unable to open her jaw, that didn't stop Bella from raising her voice in an attempt to yell. "Stop talking about James like he's still alive! I watched him die, so he is nothing to me anymore; do you hear me? _Nothing!"_ "

If he were honest, Demetri just thought she looked pitiful. Sure, she could get loud, but that was about the full extent of any display of anger the poor girl could show. However, she needed to know that even though he was dead, he was still very much the ruling force in her life. Taking a moment to formulate how he was going to word what he was going to say, he ran the tip of his tongue along his teeth before he let out a harsh breath. "Your sire is still very much alive, and he is everything to you."

He saw her stance change, her nose wrinkle on one side, and her brows draw in her confusion, so he continued. "It is his venom that flows through your veins, not yours. It doesn't become yours until it destroys your blood. It is why newborns are so fucking strong. You still have blood in your veins and not just in your belly. That's the last thing that goes, because his venom needs it to flow to the rest of your body. It's too thick otherwise. Just like humans, we depend on our sire, or parent if you prefer, to teach us, to help us, and to raise us. It's why we call freshly woken vampires newborns. During that first year to fourteen months or so, the bond between sire and childe is the only thing that matters to the childe. All the resentment, all the red hot loathing you have for the ones that killed this James are because they took that away from you. Your feelings for the rest of them are because they did nothing to stop it."

A century from now Demetri would still not be able to articulate the feeling that shot through him at the site of the newborn when he was finished speaking. She didn't just deflate before his eyes; something in her shattered.

Her eyes closed and she wrapped the arm she could move across her middle, attempting to hold the fragments together as she cleared her throat. "So, nothing is going to make this hollow feeling go away?"

"Not anytime soon."

She was silent for a minute, and when she opened her eyes again, they were cast to the ground. "Would I still feel like this toward them if I didn't see it?"

At the question, Demetri hummed. "Not likely from the moment you woke up, no, but this whole situation is the dictionary definition of unavoidable. As they attempted to take over raising you, some things would have felt very wrong. Others, you wouldn't have been able to bring yourself to do, because it's not how your sire would have raised you. You would have eventually asked questions, and it would have ultimately depended on their answers. It would have come down to whether or not they told you the truth, and how old you were at the time. If they could have kept it hidden for a year? Not at all because your need of your sire would have come to an end. But it's more likely they couldn't have, because you would have tried to find him sooner or later. It would have taken you a month, maybe two if they tried hard enough, or kept you secluded enough, or sated enough, or distracted enough, but our need of our sire is so strong at the beginning of this life, it physically affects us to be away from them, even in the event of their death. Even a yearling will mourn their sire, though not to the same extent as an infant. The bottom line, Néos, is while your conscious mind might hate him, your much larger subconscious mind knows you need him."

Using Demetri's jacket that covered her hand, Bella wiped away the venom from her mouth and chin she couldn't swallow, her voice quivering when she was able to speak again. "I don't want to."

Turning his head and tilting it slightly to the side, Demetri curled his tongue behind his teeth. He did truly feel bad for her, and it showed in the way his voice changed when he spoke. It was softer, and carried a more soothing tenor then the more matter of fact way he had been talking to her. "That... unfortunately, isn't something you get to decide just yet. Until you're older, nothing is going to make you feel better. For that, you have my deepest and truest empathies and condolences, Néos."

Lowering her eyes again, Bella didn't even try to swallow the mouthful of venom, and instead just spat it out and wipe what remained on her lips away again with Demetri's jacket sleeve. "Did someone do this to you? Is that how you know all of this?"

Changing his position from having his arms crossed to instead clasping his hands behind his back, he shook his head. "No; it's why I can only empathize and not sympathise. My sire is alive and well, last I heard. However, when his life does come to an end, I won't even pause to whimper a farewell. His life, and his passing, are no care of mine. My connection to him died out more than two millennia ago. The reason I know what I do is because you are not the first vampire I've dealt with that lost their sire far too early in this life. They all reacted differently of course, all being different ages, but the basic driving forces are all the same. You're angry, and you have every right... to... be."

While he did finish his statement, the last two words were spoken with a questioning influx over his shoulder as he looked down at the matted brown hair on Bella's head as she took up a position behind him. He didn't move more than that, staying still but lifting a curious brow. Keeping his head faced back, he flicked only his eyes to the new addition, and his face lost its expression. He could feel the violent shaking of the vampiress at his back as she tried to become invisible, his spine straightening as a result. Clearly, his plan with the wolf worked. He gained enough of her trust to see him as a protector, but this would be his only chance to cement it.

Turning to face Felix fully, Demetri leveled him with a look, not moving or showing any noticeable sign he cared Felix was there. How this ended was going to come down to Felix and his ability to read a very precarious situation. Demetri was well aware, venomwise, he absolutely could not replace her sire. That was impossible. However, what he could do was shift her dependency from a dead vampire to a live one if Felix played his part right. If he fucked up though, all gained ground would be lost, and he would be left with no choice but to destroy the girl because there would be no coming back from that. He was also well aware that by facilitating that dependency shift, he would be legally seen as her sire in the eyes of Aro's laws, but sacrificing part of his life to raising a newborn was, in his mind, a far cry better than the aforementioned alternative.

He certainly had no aversion to murder when it came to a vampire that knew better and fucked up, but this was a different case altogether, and he didn't relish the idea of killing a changeling if he didn't absolutely have to. There were instances where that was the only option of course, but so far as he could tell, this wasn't one of them... at least not yet.

He needn't have worried, though. Felix had known Demetri for so long, and seen that look on his face so many time, he would have known what to do even if he somehow lost his sight. It was a cross of exasperation and annoyance, and the expression his boss used when he took shit too far back at home. It was a look that said 'back off' or 'knock it off' with a very clear threat of an ass whoopin' if he didn't. At seven foot, he noticeably towered over Demetri's 6'3 frame, not to mention he was also twice his size in muscle mass. However, having more than once been on the bad side of the hidden demon that resided within Demetri, Felix did exactly what he was supposed to; he submitted.

Be that as it may, Bella watched from around Demetri's arm as the larger vampire lowered himself, and the bodies he held, to the ground. Then, to her even greater shock, once he dropped the load he held, the larger vampire stayed lowed and backed up several feet, leaning his back against a tree, and fully sitting down, his head turning to the side and closing his eyes with his neck exposed and hands showing. What was so mind boggling was, he did it with nothing more than a look. Shifting her eyes from the prone vampire up to Demetri, who still hadn't so much as twitched, she bit her lip, unsure how she herself was supposed to react to the man that had now saved her twice.

Though he could smell the confusion and indecision coming from the vampire behind him, he kept his eyes on Felix a moment longer, just to make sure he was going to play his part long enough to finish what had been started. However, he did speak to her. "His name is Felix, and you have nothing to fear from him, Néos."

Once again, she was curious what that name meant, but as always when he said it, there was a more pressing thing to respond to. "That's not what it seemed like when I ran into him before."

A smirk Felix would know anywhere lifted the corner of Demetri's lip. "I wasn't between you two before. I dare him to try something now." In response to the audible gulp from Felix, Demetri chuckled deep in his throat before finally looking down at Bella, unsurprised to see venom leaking from the corners of her mouth at the scent of human blood on the air. The only thing that kept her where she was, was her fear of Felix. Unclasping his hands, he used one of them to force her out from behind him. Keeping that hand on her back, he drug her along next to him, dipped his head, and spoke directly to her. "Eat, Néos; I'm watching over you."

She didn't make a move toward the humans until Demetri placed himself between Felix and what was intended to be her first meal. As soon as he did, though, she pounced like the starving newborn vampire she was.

Demetri watched her, one arm crossed over his chest, his chin pinched between the fingers of the other, his ire rising once again. He knew she had limited movement of her jaw, he saw it when he got her talking. He was positive it would hamper her ability to eat, but until he saw it with his own eyes, he couldn't have known the know the full extent. Eyes shifting momentarily from the newborn that was attempting to feed to the still unmoving wolf that completely took away her ability to do so, he growled to himself before releasing his chin and moving toward the newborn with a 'stop'.

Bella, however, unable to help herself, whipped around and attempted to lunge at the perceived threat to her meal.

Demetri, on the other hand, wasn't having it. Ready for the attack, he caught her, and leaned back, getting his face out of her reach. Jerking her back around, her held her tight against him, her back to his chest. The hold was as protective as it was restraining since he was no longer between Bella and Felix, and she knew it. Crouching down with her positioned between his legs, he cocked a brow at her. While there was amusement in his eyes, they also clearly said not to do that again. His tone, however, was as soothing as it could be. "You have no ability to bite, therefore you cannot feed on your own."

Releasing the newborn, Demetri leaned to the side and grabbed the shirt of the closest human, using that to pull the unconscious boy to him. Adjusting his hold, he brought the human within the newborn's ability to reach, and used the nail on his thumb to slice into its neck. Once there was a cut large enough for her to feed from, he covered it with his thumb, put his lips next to Bella's ear, and speaking low and slow, attempted to guide her through being fed. "Easy, Néos. Seal the wound, and let his heart do the work for you. There is no need for you to try and bite. All you have to do is swallow."

This was the moment of truth. If he moved his thumb and she fed, he had her. If she didn't, well... the point was moot. Though it took her three tries to fully seal the slice he made in the human's neck, she handed over every ounce of her protection and wellbeing to him when her eyes slid closed as she swallowed her very first mouthful of blood. When what sounded like a purr reached his ears, Demetri praised her with a quiet 'good girl' as his eyes flicked to Felix, who was now sagging where he sat.

1200 years he's known him, and Felix was still amazed at how effective Demetri was at whatever he set his mind to. He had absolutely no idea when Demetri decided he was going to take on the newborn in such a way because there were very few vampires outside of coven mates that would take on the legal responsibility of someone else's childe, and even fewer that would do what basically amounted to adoption when the actual sire was an unknown variable since newborns did take on traits of said unknown sire. That number dropped even further when the vampire needed the additional time and care of one like her. That number became completely nonexistent when the adopter was like Demetri; someone who has never been an actual sire. His boss was indeed over two thousand years old but, to Felix's knowledge anyway, never turned a human. Yet, there he was, vigilantly surveying the area while hand feeding an infant he had no venomous connection to.

With every swallow, Demetri could feel the girl relax more into his chest. He kept one ear on the human's heartbeat and the other on the area. He guessed her to be just over half done and past the human's ability to overcome the blood loss when he heard the distant sound of footfalls heading their way. He gave the approach another few moments before he figured out why it sounded like so many, and lifted his head, turning it to look at Felix. His voice when speaking to him was much different than when he spoke to the newborn, and it carried a level of command with it. "Go deal with that."

Demetri's movement pulled Bella's attention from the blood in her mouth to the vampire against the tree. She did feel both safe and secure in Demetri's hold, but she was much closer to Felix this time when he moved, and in response, released the human's neck and turned, tucking herself into Demetri's chest with a whimper.

The tracker responded in kind, again pressing his thumb to the wound to slow the blood flow, while his head dipped back down, tucking her head under his chin, a deep growl in his chest. Like hell he was going to allow anyone to undo all he accomplished with the infant. He didn't care if shit came down to a dog fight against Felix, either. He wasn't giving up his gained ground, and he sure as fuck wasn't giving it up because someone wasn't using their brain. His face dark, his voice was darker. "Slowly, Dick. Scare her again, and I will fuck you up." He made no attempt to coach Bella out of his chest and back into eating until Felix was on his feet, but stopped him before he moved much more than that. "Incapacitate only. We got what we came for, and they will still have a job to do once we leave, so don't kill them outright."


	4. Chapter 4

Five hours after leaving the property of the Cullen coven, Demetri, with a skittish Bella in tow, stepped from the woods and back onto the stone drive. He had no trouble getting her to follow him once she ate the three humans. Well, two and half since she macerated the neck of one of them during her attempt to feed herself and it bled out quite a bit before she actually drank from it. Her eyes were still basically pits of onyx, and it would take several feedings before her eyes would show she was eating at all.

While in the woods she stuck close to his side, he did hit a snag with her about a half of a mile away from their destination. Once she figured out where he was leading her, she planted her feet and flat out refused to move another inch. When he turned back to find out what the problem was, Demetri watched a literal war wage behind her eyes. Demetri saved her, protected her, and fed her, the three things that would buy the trust and loyalty of any orphaned newborn, but she had such a bad experience with this place ingrained in her it was literally fighting against instinct for her to return.

Not used to having his word questioned, it took every ounce of patience Demetri possessed to remain calm enough to give repeated assurances she would be staying with him and not returned to the coven. There would be plenty of things in the very near future he would have to force her to do, and very likely against her will. He didn't see any reason for this to be one of them. In the end, the way he got her to go was by gesturing through the trees, pointing out the car that sat innocently enough in the driveway and pulling the hood of his jacket she was still wearing over her head to hide her face. Then again, the promise of the dismemberment of anyone who got too close to her for her comfort probably carried a decent amount of weight in her decision.

He did, however, leave out there were others there as well, so there was quite the surprise for Bella when she too left the trees, and her reaction was instant. She didn't turn and bolt, however. Instead, at the sight of Felix, with the addition of Jane and Alec, she grabbed onto Demetri's arm and positioned herself behind him and as out of view of the others as she could.

Demetri, though, ignored everyone as he led Bella toward his renal car. He would see to her first, and then he would deal with the twins. Pulling his arm free of her hold at the back passenger door of the car, he glanced at her as he caught the car keys when Felix tossed them over. It was as he unlocked and opened the trunk he spoke to her. "Néos..." Once again digging in his bag, he pulled out his backup jacket. Shaking it out, he picked a white thread from the black material before he then turned to face Bella fully as he shrugged it on. "Would you like to borrow one of my shirts to wear until we get home and something more your size can be obtained? It would be less restricting than what you have on." He saw indecision pass through her eyes as they shifted to look at the others present, and backtracked slightly so as not to upset the girl before putting her in a car. "You are of course welcome to keep my jacket as long as you'd like if that's your preference."

Bella took a moment with her presented choice, taking in the faces of the two new vampires who were doing well enough in their covertness to look at her. They weren't being intrusive, and they weren't looking at her like she was on display, but she knew what her clothing looked like under her borrowed jacket, and knew for certain she didn't want to actually take it off to change into something else; even if it would allow her more freedom of movement. Looking at Demetri from under the hood, she slowly shook her head. "I'll stay like this if that's okay."

Demetri merely nodded in response as he tugged at the sleeves of his shirt to remove the wrinkles. "I wouldn't have given the option if it wasn't." Closing the trunk, he then swept past her, opening the passenger door, and gesturing for her to have a seat. When she hesitated, her eyes once again sliding to the other three vampires in the drive, Demetri chuckled quietly. "Pay them no mind, Néos. They aren't riding with us."

Glancing quickly at the two SUVs that were parked several feet further up the drive, she swallowed hard when Demetri nodded at her. She didn't really know why she didn't want to be in a car, but she chalked it up to it just being something new she hadn't done yet being the problem. She knew in her gut that if Demetri hadn't done anything to her yet, he probably wasn't going to, so with a resigned sigh, she closed the two feet between herself and the open door, slowly sliding into the seat. When Demetri crouched and grabbed the bottom of his jacket she wore so he could move it inside the car, Bella licked her lips and looked at him. "What does Néos mean?" She wasn't upset at the name, just curious.

Once the tail of his jacket was secured, Demetri remained crouched as he lifted his eyes to Bella's at her softly spoken question. Titling his head slightly to the side, he hummed in his throat. "Néos roughly translates to 'Young One'. You might be close to adulthood, or even be an adult by human standards. But, by ours, which is the standard that matters, you are twelve days old, and very, very young." When all she did was nod at the explanation, Demetri stood. "Breathe through your nose and try to remain calm. I'll be right back." When she nodded once again, he shut her door and finally turned his sights on Felix and the twins. A smirk on his face as he made his way to them, he chuckled. "I trust they gave you no issue."

A very sweet and overly innocent smile came to Jane's face as she slightly shook her head. "Of course not."

Alec snorted with a roll of his eyes. No, they hadn't given them much of a problem, but they certainly weren't willing to get in the trucks. Crossing his arms, he looked at Demetri. "They're loaded up and we're ready to go when you are. What's the plan from here, Boss? From what I just saw, the girl almost seems to like you."

Demetri clasped his hands behind his back as he looked at Alec. "Of course she does." Then his eyes flicked to where he knew Carlisle to be, and locked their eyes. "I fed her." Holding the gaze of the Cullen Elder a moment longer, he then returned his sight to his subordinates. "You did put the two biggest threats in the same truck, yes?" At the nods of the twins, Demetri looked at Alec. "That is the truck you and Jane will be in. Hopefully, they won't force your hands, but be ready to put them in their places if necessary. Felix," shifting his eyes, he continued. "You will drive the other truck."

With his lips pursed and brows drawn, Alec spoke up when Felix nodded. "What about the girl?"

All three guards shifted back at the change in Demetri at the relatively innocent question. His expression darkened, and his tone took on a threatening undertone. "What about her? She will be with me, exclusively, from now on." Looking at each of the other guards in turn, "none of you need to concern yourselves with anything that concerns her. All you need to do is keep a measured distance between them and her until we get home."

Clearing his throat, Alec rubbed the back of his neck. He didn't want to ask, especially after the clear message Demetri gave about letting him deal with the girl. "What about the plane, Dem? We can put as much distance between her and the coven as you want while driving, but we don't have that kind of space on the jet. There are thirteen bodies, including the pilot, so proximity between them is going to be an issue we can't do anything about."

That wasn't something Demetri was unaware of. He was perfectly aware of the linguistics that needed seen to between the Cullen Den and the airstrip. However, those were linguistics he had already worked out. "I will be flying the jet. When we reach the airstrip, refrain from allowing the Cullens to board until I have secured the infant in the cockpit."

Not one to just let shit go, Felix was the next one to question Demetri. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

The same look that overtook Demetri's face in the woods settled on the tracker's features, causing Felix to gulp. However, Demetri's tone turned the questioning of one's intelligence on Felix. Unclasping his hands, he crossed his arms, his face not changing. "She is still woefully underfed, has no ability to bite, and only has the use of one arm. What is it exactly you think she can do, Felix?"

When his enforcer wisely remained silent, Demetri uncrossed an arm and scratched his nose. "I agree the situation is certainly not ideal, and it would certainly be my preference not to have her and the Cullens on the same aircraft; if only for her comfort. However, working within the bounds of our orders, it is unavoidable. They will cross paths numerous times before a permanent separation can be decided. The situation is what it is, and we will deal with it as we deal with any other. That said, she is as defenseless as I have ever personally seen a vampire, and I will not allow her to be upset; intentionally or otherwise. From this point on, so far as I'm concerned, that changeling is mine. Anyone who causes her to so much as whimper will be dealing with me, and I don't give a good God damn who it is, either."

While there was absolutely no need for him to raise his voice for the last two sentences, he did so anyway, his eyes set on the SUVs. He would deal with a negative reaction from the newborn to the declaration if he had to, but he wasn't overly worried. Somewhere inside her, she knew she needed someone. If she had an aversion to that someone being him, she wouldn't have accepted his help in any way, shape, or form. She would have attacked him, not spoken with him at the lengths she did. She wouldn't have given him the benefit of the doubt at any time. Most of all, she absolutely would not have allowed him to feed her in the manner he did.

His orders when he and Felix first arrived were to capture or destroy as he saw fit. It never crossed his mind to kill on sight, because there were very few newborns alive that didn't have the ability to learn, or that could not be taught to live in accordance with the laws. There were not many, and they weren't that hard to abide by. Granted it was up to the sire to instil such knowledge on their offspring, but from the little he had learned of her's, Demetri very much doubted that James guy would have done so. The way he was described, it was far more likely he would have abandoned her at some point, because it sounded as if he lived to destroy the lives of others. It was quite clear from the story he was told, her sire knew he wasn't going to survive, and she was bitten for the sole purpose of causing as much chaos as possible before he died.

And he certainly succeeded in that.

When Carlisle called Aro, from where Demetri stood, it was only his Master's age that kept him from exploding during the conversation. He readily agreed to send aid, but didn't let on about the additional order of bringing the coven back as well. There was a clear interest in the newborn when Carlisle revealed she was gifted in someway, but if she was as out of control as Cullen made her sound, she wasn't worth the upheaval she would cause. His and Felix's orders were to find the newborn and evaluate to make the actual determination if she was or not while Jane and Alec were to collect the coven.

On the plane, Demetri gave a slightly different set of orders. He wanted to find out what Carlisle didn't tell Aro, and the best way to do that was to put them into a false sense of security, and that's exactly what he did. Cullen sang like a fucking canary, too. He revealed the involvement of the wolves, how long that infant had been running around on her own, and the fact she had yet to feed at that point. You can do a lot over the phone, spin whatever tale you want and leave things out. That becomes much harder when staring your absolution in the face, and people tend to confess their every sin; especially when you piss them off.

It had always been his intention to retrieve the newborn and take her back to Italy where she stood a chance of obtaining some semblance of a normal life. Even gifted she wouldn't be forced on the guard, though she would be presented with the choice if she showed that kind of promise. He knew there was a vampire with the ability to manipulate bonds, but he didn't allow Chelsea to do it to females, though he was sorely tempted to make an exception for the three female Cullens. Every single female guard was there because she wanted to be, and this female would be no different.

Or... at least that was the plan until he saw her.

He wasn't even sure what it was that changed his mind. There were so many things wrong the first time he actually saw her, and it could have been any one of them. The undiluted fear in her scent as she cowered from the shifter, the injuries she would never fully recover from, the color of her unfed eyes... all things that didn't have to happen and were easily avoided. None of what happened to her was necessary, and it did something to him. It was no secret Demetri was overly protective of females, but this one pulled at those protective instincts like no other vampiress ever had before.

She was certainly not the first mistreated newborn he had been sent to retrieve. She wasn't even the first female, but she was the only one he ever made the deliberate decision to take on as his own. It was true he had never personally sired a newborn, but he has overseen the raising of plenty. The circumstance behind each of those, however, was for a vastly different reason. It wasn't due to intentional mistreatment. It was due to the sire itself being too young to properly raise their childe, so he or another guard would step in when needed to put the pair back on the proper path. This was altogether different in the fact this newborn was not just mistreated, but flatout tortured, and the intentional abuse left her disfigured for the rest of her life.

It was because of that disfigurement he knew there was a very real possibility he signed himself up for a lifelong commitment. He wasn't even able to come up with a best case scenario for the situation at the moment. At this point, he had no idea what the future held for her; if she would ever be able to take care of herself or not. The claws of all shifter breeds were designed to render a vampire incapacitated, but that wolf didn't just leave her incapable of defending herself. He also left her fully incapable of biting her prey, and with the placement of and deepness to the marks on her face, they might not ever heal enough for that to change. What made Demetri so angry was he knew that mother fucker knew exactly what he was doing, and there was a very large part of him that wanted to return the favor and take that dog's ability to eat.

Blinking at the hand that waved in front of his face, Demetri's hand snapped out and grabbed Alec by the wrist. His voice showed his annoyance. "What?"

Brows creased as he took his hand back, Alec's lip curled in the corner. "Where'd you go?"

Giving his head a shake to dispel the thoughts that had taken to souring his mood further, Demetri ran a hand down his face. "No where." Rolling a shoulder, he then turned his back on the other three guards, speaking to them as he made his way to the car. "Let's go home."


	5. Chapter 5

Bella watched as the surrounding trees gave way to overwatered, dead grass as Demetri drove out of Forks. Nothing so far had been said between them, other than the expected 'are you ready' when he first got in the car, and she was pretty alright with that. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, but she could tell there was something not quite right with the man beside her.

He was... stiff, if she had to name it. She had seen him move with all the grace of a river before, but now that he was still, there was a rigidness to him that didn't seem like it had a place. She wanted to ask if he was alright, if only to put herself at ease he wasn't about to snap, but she remained silent, because really? Would it matter if he was or not? Would she know if he was lying? Since both those answers were no, she just kept watching the landscape fly by.

Allowing the purr of the engine to sooth her, Bella slid down in her seat and into the way too big jacket she was wearing. It was only her intention to take a breath as her body settled, but she got a nose full of Demetri's scent, and a hum escaped her throat as a result. At the feel of eyes on her, she shifted her own, and found Demetri had actually cut his eyes to her. They had curiosity swirling in the red depths, and she was pretty damn happy she couldn't blush anymore. Still, she licked her lips and dropped her eyes again. "You smell nice."

A small smirk pulled at the corner of his lips as Demetri returned his eyes to the road. "Do I?"

Not even slightly a fan of the amusement in his voice, Bella's nose wrinkled but she chose to keep her response to herself. She said what she said. He heard what she said. She saw no reason to further feed his ego. So, instead of commenting further on his scent, she played with her fingers as she looked back at his profile. "Can I ask you something?" She watched as he downshifted for a hard turn in the road and nod his head, and after wiping the corner of her mouth on the fabric of the jacket she wore, she changed her mind on what she wanted to ask. "Damn it... why can't I stop drooling?"

Cocking a brow, Demetri glanced at her from the corner of his eye as he began to get back up to speed. "Was that really your question?"

Swallowing yet another mouthful of venom, she shrugged as best she could. "Well, no, but I mean... if you know the answer, that'd be great."

His voice was offhand as he shifted more comfortably in his seat. "Your injury." Turning to look at her, there was a hum in his throat. "It'll get better as it heals, but until then, it's going to cause an unbelievable amount of problems. Unfortunately, there is no way to know the extent of the damage, or just what the problems will be until the injury is put through its paces, and we can't do that until you're properly nourished and your body is properly functioning."

Unable to bite back the whimper, Bella shifted in her seat to better look at Demetri, who had turned back to the road. Her face was drawn, and her dark eyes were flat. "How long until then?" The downturn of his lips told her she probably wasn't going to like his answer, and when he opened his mouth, she was proved right.

"To be perfectly honest, I don't know. An infant vampire who has gone without feeding as long as you have, but in otherwise perfect condition? I could have that infant up to snuff in two, maybe three days depending on how much of an asshole it wanted to be. An abused, unfed infant who is in decent physical condition? Five days to a week, depending on what psychological trauma and physical deficit I have to combat as well. You? I have no answer because I've never dealt with one like you."

Scrubbing hard at the side of her face in agitation, Bella wanted to cry. That wasn't what she was expecting to hear, but she was glad he wasn't lying to try and make her feel better. Even still, she pushed a little more. "So, is there anything you do know about what's gonna happen to me?"

His eyes sparked as a brow lifted to his bangs. Locking their eyes, his voice dared her to question him. "Physically, I can personally guarantee _nothing_ will happen to you without first going through me. I will not allow it." Holding her gaze for a moment longer, he then pursed his lips and clicked the back of his tongue. Looking back out the window, he continued. "Your protection aside, your recuperation, Néos, is going to be up to you and whether or not you accept my help. _If_ you let me, I can feed you, and in a number of days your body will begin to function as it should. You're hearing will come back, your sight will sharpen, and your sense of smell will become stronger. _If_ you let me, I can help you work through your minefield of emotions, specifically your anger, and begin the much longer and far more grueling process of reteaching you the art of rational thought and the concept of wise decision making." Glancing from the corner of his eye, he grinned. "And, for future record, blindly trusting random vampires, especially males, is a very bad decision."

Winking at her when she made a face at him, he cleared his throat as he prepared for what he assumed would be the harder pill for the girl to swallow. "What I cannot do, what no one can do, is heal the claw marks. That will take time, and I have absolutely no idea how much." Turning his head to look at her when she whined quietly, Demetri then sighed. "The truth is, infants don't survive shifter attacks. Hell, the vast majority of older vampires don't survive shifter attacks. They are designed by God to destroy the Devil's favored monster. Their teeth and claws are the only thing other than fire we cannot recover from. The teeth of our own kind don't do the kind of damage theirs do."

Lifting her right hand, Bella laid her palm against her cheek, her fingers settling into the grooves caused by Paul's claws. Swallowing again, and licking her lips, she couldn't even bring herself to look at Demetri when she asked her next question. "You're saying these are never going away, aren't you?"

Demetri gave a single, jerky nod. "The scars will remain for the rest of your life, yes. However, over time, and with an ungodly amount of effort, the underlying damage should mostly be able to be undone."

Slowly sliding her thumb over each divot in turn, Bella's voice was nearly nonexistent. "Mostly?"

Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, Demetri then slowed the car again, pulling over to the side of the road. Shifting the car into park, he turned to lean against the door and crossed his arms. "My priority is restoring as much movement in your jaw as possible. If you cannot open your jaw wide enough, you cannot feed on your own. The longer it takes to get you to that point, the less chance there will ever be of you being in a position to care for yourself."

Rolling her head along the seat, Bella just looked at him for a long moment before speaking again. "What about my arm? I can only move it from the elbow down."

At the expected question, Demetri averted his eyes with a sigh. "You are going to have to trust I know what I'm doing, Néos. It is far more important you can move your jaw than it is you can move that arm."

Shifting her own eyes, she looked at what she could see of the slashes to her shoulder, frowning. "But, can't we do both at the same time?"

Demetri gave a nonchalant shrug, "Sure, but self-defense is pretty fucking useless if you're unable to eat. You may no longer have the ability to starve to death, but if you don't, or can't, feed, you will begin to deteriorate; as I'm sure you can tell from the dimming of your basic senses. Those are the first to go, and over time, your overall ability to move becomes affected. Restoring your ability to eat without assistance will eventually lead to your ability to move that arm. Blood is the only thing that can help you heal, and the more of it you drink, the better off you'll be over time."

"How much time?"

Tapping his finger on the wheel, he cocked a brow. "I do believe I already answered that."

He did; she couldn't deny that, she just really didn't like his answer. He didn't know. However, she was convinced it was more of a 'don't know for sure and don't want to be wrong' kind of thing, so with that hope in the forefront, she pursed her lips as best she could. "So... a few months?" When Demetri shook his head with an expression that clearly said he knew it was longer than that, she did frown, but was somewhat alright with the alternative. "A year?" She wouldn't like it, but she could do a year.

His expression not changing, he shook his head again. "No." Leaning forward, and keeping his movement slow was easy to follow, he reached toward her, and when she allowed it, ran the pad of his forefinger along the third claw grove, and the one that was the cause of most of the issues. "This one didn't just damage the surface like the others did." Using the other hand, he lowered the sun visor and flipped open the mirror, he then gently turned Bella's head enough so she could see what the injury actually looked like. "We're talking a time measured in decades, Neos."

If it were possible, Bella would have choked on her tongue. She had all but gone out of her way to not see what she looked like after Demetri led her from the woods, but now that she was basically forced to, if she could vomit, she would. Eyes only slightly in focus at this point, she shooed his hand away, replacing it with her own. She could actually _see inside her mouth_.

Where her eyes were locked, however, was on the hinge that had been sliced clean through. Pushing lightly on the underside of her jaw, she watched as the two parts slid against each other, but the sound she heard was two pieces of stone grinding together. Her voice was so quiet, had the windows been open, it would have been carried away on a light breeze. "Decadessss... as in more than one?"

Demetri answered with a shallow nod. "Our bodies can recover from a lot. We can bounce back from things that would blow your mind. But, we are not meant meant to bounce back from a run-in with a shifter; we are meant to die. The recovery for those who somehow survive their encounter is very long, and exceptionally painful."

 _Can this asshole_ stop _with the truth bombs? Like... fuck._ No, she wasn't mad per say, at least not at him. It was actually kinda nice in some sick way that he was being so forthcoming with his answers, but Jesus. It certainly lended credit to the saying 'the truth will set you free, but first it'll piss you off'. Clamping her hand over what she discovered to be a hole in her face, she then 'harrumphed' before snapping away from the mirror, once again returning her attention out the window.

Demetri, left blinking at the childish show of temper, took it as the clear sigh it was the conversation was over and settled himself back in his seat to finish the last twenty minutes of the drive. He saw the other cars pass them while he was talking to Bella, and had every intention of beating them to the airfield.

It wasn't by much, but he did pull into the entrance first.

Bella, while Demetri ignored every single road law ever created and then some, continued to sit silently in her seat, watching the world fly by. She still found the fact she could still make out every detail perfectly slightly odd, but she had mostly gotten used to it while she was in the forest. On the drive, though, she wasn't able to really focus on any one thing. Her mind continued to plague her questions, and she spent the time to the airfield trying to come up with something that resembled a suitable series of answers, but wasn't even able to come up with ones she didn't like. Sure, nothing Demetri said fell into the realm of 'okay'. It wasn't even really even on par with 'fucked up'. It was lower than that.

Even once Demetri stopped the car Bella didn't move much. All she did was shift slightly when the older vampire leaned toward so he could grab something out of the glovebox, but otherwise, she remained in her seat, staring off into the distance.

Demetri left her to do as she would as he gathered the random shit strewn throughout the car. He didn't pay much mind at all actually until after he was done cleaning out the car of their presence, and getting both his and Felix's bags from the trunk.

Likewise, Bella didn't really pay any attention to Demetri until he appeared outside her window, but all she did was shift her eyes up to him. When he cocked a brow at her, she sighed. She didn't get out of the car right when he opened her door, and instead gave herself a another minute and used that time to comb her hair with her fingers and forced it to lay over the side of her face and cover most the claw marks. Demetri's hood only did so much because she was so much smaller than he was and his jacket didn't fit her, and she didn't want anyone to see what had been pointed out to her.

She had only gotten her feet on the ground when the two SUVs pulled in, and the corner of her lip curled as she watched them slow to a halt several feet away. Taking Demetri's offered hand, she allowed him to help her stand, though once on her feet, Bella remained in the space between the car, the door, and Demetri's body. Looking over the door, her eyes narrowed and she turned her head slightly toward Demetri, and spoke in a level voice as she waved her hand in front of her cheek. "Did they have anything to do with this?"

Glancing at the SUVs from the corner of his own eyes, Demetri hummed in his throat. "What happened to you was the end result of a series of spectacularly bad decisions. Every single one lead to what happened, but it is rather difficult to put the blame on them for what comes naturally to a dog." He then glanced down at her with a spark in his eyes and smirk on his lips. "Won't stop me from doing it though. If they had simply used their brains, it certainly wouldn't have happened, and it's that truth that is going to bite them in the ass."

There was a grunt from Bella as she allowed Demetri to pull her away from the car. "I'd rather one of those wolves bite them in the ass. Seems like something of a better punishment for all involved. Turnabout being fair play or something like that."

There was a deep rumble in Demetri's chest as he chuckled and held his hand out to the side, indicating he wanted her to proceed him onto the plane. His mind kickstarted, formulating how to make that work, and what all would be involved when it came to caging and transporting, specifically, the wolf that harmed her. However, the tone in his voice when he spoke sent a tremor down Bella's spine. "I'm sure I can arrange that for you, Neos."

"Demetri."

Both Bella and the called after tracker paused, both turning back to Felix, who was now out of his truck, and leaning against the front tire. He had his arms crossed, and there was a darkness to his crinkled eyes. "We could have a problem." When Demetri cocked a brow, Felix pointed his thumb at the passenger area of the truck. "These assholes didn't shut up the whole way here, and the cockpit isn't exactly soundproof."

Demetri looked sidelong at the newborn, and caught the end of her rolling her eyes. She spoke under her breath, "color me fucking surprised." To which Demetri snorted.

Shaking his head, he returned his sights on his second. "It is only a problem if there is no solution, Felix, and I can think of four off the top of my head. You and the twins are resourceful enough. Figure it out."

Felix's lip curled in the corner as his boss and the changeling vanished into the plane. "Easy for you to say. You have the easy job."

"What does he want us to do?"

Turning his head, Felix sighed through his nose as he looked at Alec. "Didn't say. Just to figure it out." Looking back at the front of the jet, he waited until both Demetri and Bella were visible through the windows, and hummed. "He wanted to have her secured before the Cullens got out of the car, so we have about two to do that."

In the cockpit, Bella's eyes were wide as she looked around the space at the different lights and buttons. There were hundreds of them, and she blinked. "You can actually fly this thing?"

Grinning over his shoulder, Demetri chuckled. "Flying is easy. It's the landing you need to be concerned about."

Eyes going wider, she then scoffed and crossed her arms when Demetri winked at her. "You have a very dark sense of humor."

Grin still in place, he turned to face her fully. "Maybe, but..." using two fingers, he pushed against Bella's chest, knocking her enough off balance for her to fall into the seat behind her. "I was only half joking. Big plane means big gas tank, which then means big boom." Grin growing, he cocked his head to the side. "Do you have a guess as to what is more detrimental to our kind than shifter claws?" Her face clearly said she didn't actually _need_ him to answer that, but when she remained silent, he leaned toward her and did so anyway with a whispered voice. "Big booms."

Swallowing hard, Bella's eyes darted back and forth in an attempt to keep herself from looking into Demetri's amused ruby eyes, but in the end, she looked right at him as she ran the back of her jacket covered hand over her bottom lip and chin. "You are slightly terrifying."

Straightening his spine and standing back up, Demetri actually laughed outright, and to Bella's shock, she actually found herself smiling slightly behind her hand at the sound. Giving her a real smile, Demetri dipped his head, his amusement still in his voice. "Thank you."

Bella's brows creased as she twisted around her seat as Demetri took the three steps to the exit of the cockpit, watching as he slid the door closed and shrug out of his jacket. "That wasn't a compliment."

Snorting quietly as he crouched, rolling his jacket and dropping it on the floor of the jet and adjusting it along the tiny space between the door and floor. "Sure it was. You just don't understand your species." Looking over his shoulder, he licked his lips. "The Cullens are an anomaly within our world. They are not the only ones that live around and interact with humans on a daily basis; the vast majority do. However, they are the only ones to actually go out of their way to not just be part of the human world, but pretend they belong there. If they acted just a little more like vampires and a little less like humans, I can say with damn near certainty you would not be a vampire right now."

While that was a pretty large point of contention in itself, Bella's face smoothed out as she followed Demetri again with her eyes. "And what a great one I turned out to be, huh?"

Unclasping the locks to the window, Demetri glanced back at her as he slid it open, hoping himself up to sit on the slide, poised to make a quick escape if one of the Cullens tried to run. "You seem to be doing alright, under the circumstances."

Anger rising again, Bella growled in her throat as she crossed her arms in a huff. "I have always understood vampires to be these... graceful, indestructible beings, and then there's me."

Looking out to the tarmac, Demetri jerked his head to the side in indication to load the Coven, but he responded without hesitation. "Your misunderstanding of a species you know nothing of when human shouldn't be something you hold against yourself as a vampire." Looking back at her over his shoulder, he pursed his lips. "We do fall, and we do get hurt. It's situational, true enough, but it does happen. Because of how fast we are, it is rarely graceful when we hit the dirt, and I've given injuries to vampires that would make yours look like scratches."

Blinking at him, Bella remained silent for a moment as that settled in her brain, and it wasn't until Demetri was looking away that she spoke again. "But I heard you say back at the Cullen's place that you've never seen a vampire as defenseless as I am."

Demetri didn't look back as he answered, his eyes locked on the herded coven. "I haven't, but allow me to clarify. When I injure someone, they have no need to later defend themselves," glancing at her from the corner of his eye, "because they don't survive their injuries."

Bella's unneeded breath caught in her throat as she remained trapped in Demetri's gaze for a long moment. It felt like every ounce of air was stolen from her when he finally looked away, and she sagged in her seat. There was a rock in her stomach as a tremor danced down her spine. Her voice shook, but she wasn't sure, exactly, if she could say it was from fear. "Did I say slightly terrifying?" Against her better judgement, she shifted her eyes back to the male vampire that was coiled tight and clearly ready to bolt. "You're downright macabre."

All she could do when the sound of the most sinister chuckle she had ever heard danced across her ears was thank God himself Demetri seemed to like her, and make the mental note to never, ever, give him a reason to change his mind on where she stood on his good side.


	6. Chapter 6

"Gamóto."

17 hours of painstaking effort went out the window in a single moment.

Through vigilance and common sense, Demetri had been able to avoid a newborn attack for a very simple reason... he didn't allow said newborn to see the objects of her hatred. All the different transitions between transportation, including a 14 hour flight on a private jet, he and the other Elites had been able keep the coven intact.

Everything they did was for not when Aro decided to see the Cullens at the same time Bella was present, and the only one that was surprised by her response was Aro.

You can only be so ready to prevent an attack by a newborn, and when one was in the state Bella was in, it was even harder to judge the kind of restraint that would be needed. Injured or not, however, she was still less than two weeks into this life, was still exceptionally strong, and not one to be underestimated. It didn't matter if she was underfed. Her strength came from the blood in her veins, not the blood in her belly.

The fight she put up to get at the three she knew were responsible for the death of her sire wasn't unexpected, but it was a different kind of fight. This wasn't like her trying to take a snap at Demetri in defense of her meal; a newborn will literally fight to the death if necessary to avenge their sire, and go through whoever they had to, to do it.

That was the kind of fight it was, and it left Felix in one hell of a spot. He _knew_ if he harmed the infant Demetri would kill him, hands down and without thought, but her damaged arm was barely hanging on by more than a thread, and it wouldn't take much at all for there to be a very devastating accident. So, in order to keep his head, he took the kicks and nips, because it was the far better option.

While Felix struggled with the infant that had lost her damn mind, Demetri was barking out orders to the other guards present, telling the unneeded ones to get back and submit while he called to others to push back and get in front of the coven to hide them from the newborn's line of sight. Nowhere in his orders did he tell anyone to guard Aro, Marcus, and Caius. He didn't have the authority to tell those three what to do, but they were too close to allow a group of guards without catching Bella's attention and shifting her fight from offensive to defensive. It was much easier to calm a pissed off newborn down than it was to comfort a terrified one, so when a few tried, Demetri growled at them, which stopped the guards in their tracks.

Once the floor was as clear as he could get it, Demetri reached under his jacket, popping open the leather parcel he took out of his bag back in Washington he hadn't needed until then. Pulling out the mesh and elastic bite mask that was inside, he took the handkerchief from his back pocket, and set it in the the cloth in the mask. Staying just behind her, he ripped the hood off her head, which exposed her face to everyone present. Ignoring the gasps at the scars, in one swift motion, Demetri set the mesh mask in place over her nose and mouth, clipping it place behind her head.

Felix wrinkled his nose at Demetri's choice of tools. He would admit the bite masks were extremely effective, they were just really fucking uncomfortable. He would know... he's worn one before. They were actually quite simple, but he had never been able to figure out how they worked so well being something a newborn could break without even the slightest bit of effort. They were literally nothing more than two pieces of elastic and some net mesh. Any guard that spent time with newborns had one, and it's purpose was to, as the name suggest, prevent the vampire from biting.

This particular newborn, however, was unable to open her mouth wide enough to bite anyone. All she could do was nip at someone with her front teeth. That itself was more annoying than painful because not only did she not have a bite radius, she also didn't have the strength to close it with enough force to break the skin, leaving what was little more than divots that itched something awful.

Demetri, however, wasn't trying to stop from getting bitten. More times than he could count he had been on the receiving end of a newborn's teeth, and was no longer bothered it. It came with the territory of his job description. The mask, though, wouldn't stay on longer than it took to remove her from the room. He was merely using it to stop her from being able to smell anything other than him. It was his hope that if she couldn't smell the Cullens, he could get her to calm down.

Moving from beside her to in front of her, Demetri crouched down to her level, taking an unseen moment to assess the situation and formulating a plan to deal with this without venomshed. She didn't stop her struggle against Felix, and the nails on the arm she could move dug gouges out of the stone tiles. There was a literal river of venom running down her chin, pooling on the floor before her. The noises that came out of her held only about half the effort she was putting into making them. It was her eyes, though, that were the most concerning thing about the ordeal. They were out of focus, distant, and held no understanding.

Clicking his tongue as he sighed through his nose, he brought a hand up and cupped her scarred cheek, and her reaction was instant. Her eyes snapped to him, and she snarled something he was sure was meant to scare him, but it just made him grin. "Yes, Neos; you are an adorably ferocious little kitten, but I can't allow you to do that."

She did, actually, understand him, but she didn't like what he had to say. "But they..."

Demetri cut her off, but kept his voice level and soothing to her. "I know. I still can't let you."

Her black eyes glazed over, and her voice was covered in a heartbreak very few in the room could understand; Demetri included. "But they deserve it."

Just because Demetri didn't know what it felt like to lose his sire at such a young age didn't mean her loss didn't have an impact on him. As a matter of fact, it had such a profound effect on him, unknown to him, his own eyes lost every ounce color under the weight of his charge's soul crushing emotions. He didn't say a word as he cut his onyx orbs to Felix, but that didn't mean the man didn't know what Demetri wanted and released the newborn without hesitation.

Gently running the pad of his thumb across Bella's cheek bone, his own voice lowered in response to her upset, but the edge is now held was full of a very dark promise. "I agree, and on my life I swear you will get your owed pound of flesh, but that will be not today, Agapiménos; not while you're so grievously injured." Leaning toward her, he touched the tip of his nose to her mesh covered one, and lowered his voice so no one but her could hear him. "You just have to trust me."

He didn't back off, allowing Bella to search his eyes for whatever it was she needed to see to believe him. It took her a moment, but finally, she nodded slightly, her voice barely there. "Okay."

Lightly butting his nose to her's, he voice again was just for her. "There's my good girl." Pulling away, he gave her a half smile. "Now..."

Before he was able to do anything more to calm the situation and leave the room with a much more relaxed newborn, said newborn reacted to something over his shoulder. Her eyes went wide, and a whimper slipped past her lips, sending Demetri into a protective overdrive.

Without a single ounce of thought, he snapped around, his elbow slamming into Aro's sternum while the momentum of his forearm sent the other vampire flying across the room. Shooting from his spot, he caught up with the body before it hit the ground, and he hook one of his arms around Aro's, defying the laws of physics as he twisted his body, slamming the head of his coven face first into the floor with a crack.

A knee in Aro's back, Demetri caught Aro's other arm and shoved both up so Aro's hands were between his shoulder blades. The sound of cracking stone put the other guards in an uncomfortable titsy, but a levelly spoken 'stand down' kept them all in their place.

Aro, however, spoke through a pained growl. "You have just made the biggest mistake of your life."

There was a snort that did not come from Demetri and set all eyes on the youngest of the kings. Caius just sat on his throne, a smirk on his lips and his temple propped against the back of his knuckles. His voice was amused and cynical as he chuckled. "Oh, please allow me to be the one to point out just how ridiculously idiotic it is to threaten the one who currently holds your life in his hands. Honestly, even a blind vampire could have seen how utterly stupid it was to sneak up on him. Besides, you scared his already traumatized female. You deserved it." When all Aro did was growl, which was answered by a much darker one by the tracker, Caius grinned wider.

There was still a high level of amusement in his voice when he addressed Demetri, saying his name and not continuing until the vampire's pitch black eyes were on him. "While to my knowledge there are not currently any humans around, I do not believe a few helpings of bagged blood will harm her. Why don't you take your charge upstairs and get her something to eat while we see to this... mess."

Growling low in his chest, Demetri looked at Caius for a moment longer before he dipped his head, whispering in Aro's ear so only he could hear him. "Let us not forget who really runs things around here. Your intrusional bullshit doesn't hold a candle to my ability of stomping your ass into the ground. You have very few allies, and none that stand a chance against me. Get near my girl again, and it will be the biggest mistake of _your_ life."

Shoving Aro once more into the floor, Demetri released him with the intention of that being that. He said what needed to be said, and was willing to let everything else go. However, one look at Bella, who was still on her knees where he left her, only now half hidden behind Felix's log of a leg, he hadn't made it more than four feet away from Aro before her eyes went wide again, and she cried out "Behind you!"

A snarl slipped past Demetri's lips. No one saw him move, but the impact of his foot as he kicked it up behind him and caught Aro under the chin was certainly heard. There was so much force behind the defensive attack that Aro was once again sent flying across the room. This time when Demetri went after him, it was for a completely reason. Before it was a warning to keep his distance from Bella. Now it was because the stupid bastard tried to attack him from behind, and that wasn't tolerated by anyone. He was acting in self defense at this point, and that's what put the rest of the guard in such a shitty spot.

The lower and mid-level guards present knew they didn't have the training or the experience to take on the Head of the Guard. Sure, they had numbers on their side, but Demetri had a very well earned reputation of walking away the victor in situations where the odds were stacked insurmountably against him. It wasn't until they looked and saw the other Elites hesitate getting involved did the other guards feel a little less guilty about being scared shitless.

Even Jane, who was one of the allies Demetri knew Aro had, thought twice about coming to his aid. She could certainly use her gift and bring this to an end, but she had seen what happened to those that used their gifts on the tracker, and it never ended well. So, as she watched Demetri snag Aro out of mid air by his ankle and throw him like a rag doll back to the floor, she looked at her brother. "What do we do?"

Cringing under the question, Alec lifted a shoulder. "I don't know. I do know I don't particularly want to deal with a pissed of Demetri; do you?"

While the Elites were trying to come up with some idea on how to handle the situation without it ending with them in the training field opposite their boss, Marcus and Caius sat in their thrones, watching as Aro got his ass handed to him. Neither one did or said a word at the sound of their brother's head cracking against the floor, or the noises of pain that came from his lips. In their opinions, he asked for it. However, it was the look on Demetri's face they found the more interesting part of things. There was literally no expression. It was as even and smooth as his movements, and they looked at each other, giving a nod of understanding. He wasn't out to kill, he would have done so by now if that was his desire. This was him teaching Aro the same lesson he taught the guards; he was in charge, no matter if the other guy liked it or not, and this would continue until Aro backed down. The longer Aro tried to prove otherwise, the more foolish he was going to look.

Felix, however, came up with the only option that would stop shit from going that far. Glancing over his shoulder to the newborn that was hiding behind his leg, he took in her wide, mesmerized eyes as she watched her rescuer lay waste to someone she didn't know, but knew attempted to attack him. Clearly, she knew Demetri was defending himself, but she didn't know just how bad the long term consequences of this would be, so he spoke in a quiet, but forceful, voice. "You're the only who can stop him, Bambina. He'll kill anyone else that tries to interfere, and he cannot kill Aro."

Though it was difficult, Bella was able to pull her attention from the full on ass whoopin' Demetri was giving the man, and look up at Felix, her bottom lip between her teeth. She didn't really _want_ to stop him. In her mind, everything Demetri was doing was justified. He had been walking away; his back was turned and that guy went to attack him. It didn't seem fair to her that he wasn't allowed to do whatever he to to defend himself. Still, it also looked like to her Demetri was perfectly capable of doing exactly what Felix said he couldn't. Lifting a brow, she looked back at the 'fight'. "I beg to differ. It looks like he's about to do just that."

Looking back to the room, Felix grunted, seeing she was right in her assessment, and crouched, still keeping his voice down. "You don't understand this yet, but Aro is the head of our coven. If Demetri kills him, he'll be forced into the position, and currently, he cannot do that and take care of you because of the bullshit that goes along with the transfer of power. All of Demetri's time will be spent defending himself and our home from others that would think to try and takeover the most powerful coven in the world. The bottom line is, if you want his attention, you have to stop him."

Behind the bite mask, her nose wrinkling the best it could be as Bella grunted. Well, when it's put like that, it seemed like a good idea. Didn't mean she wanted to, but she did return her eyes to Demetri, watching and waiting. She might be being selfish, but she wasn't giving him up. He made her promises and like hell was she just going to sit back and be one of the reasons he was put in a position not to keep them.

Sifting from her knees to her toes, she set her hand on the ground, and the moment Demetri once again sent that Aro guy across the room, she bolted from her spot. She was slamming her body against Demetri's at the same time Aro was slamming into the steps that led up to the dias.

Demetri, though, wasn't even phased by the impact. He simply wrapped an arm around her waist and expertly maneuvered her from his chest to held against his back, ensuring he was between her and the object of his current irritation.

Bella made a face of annoyance, casting her eyes over to Felix, he simply flicked his fingers at her, telling her to get on with it. All that did was make her narrow her eyes. This was going to be completely up to her, and she didn't know Demetri well enough to know what to do to transfer his focus from the dude to her. Finally, she figured something out, but she wasn't sure if it would work or not.

All but becoming a contortionist, she snaked her way out from under Demetri's arm and slid from behind him to next to him. Wrapping both arms as best she could around his, she looked up at him. "My throat hurts." All she could now was hope she actually sounded as pathetic as she was going for.

At the sound of Bella's voice, Demetri glanced down at her. Though his eyes softened no small amount, they didn't regain a sliver of color. With another glance at Aro, who was using the steps behind him to hoist himself into a sitting position with his eyes to the ground, he grinned. With his point proven, he turned and reached behind Bella's head, unclasping the bite mask. "Then let's get you fed."

Caius watched as the adequately chosen Head of the Guard escorted his charge from the room, his chin between his thumb and middle finger. His legs were crossed and his other arm was draped casually over the other armrest. He still had a smirk on his lips as he lowered his eyes to Aro and his struggle to get back to his feet. He did nothing to hide how humorous he thought the last ten minutes were when he spoke. "Well, that was certainly enlightening. I suppose we can safely say we now know where Demetri's allegiances lie, can't we, Aro?" Grinning at the glaring Aro, Caius then lifted his eyes and addressed the room as a whole. "Might I suggest everyone pay very close attention to what just occurred and keep your distance from the newborn. I can personally guarantee there will only be so many allowances made before not even she will be able to stop him."


	7. Chapter 7

Giving himself a moment in the hall, Alec let out a breath before he pushed open the doors to the lounge the Elites took over as theirs, knowing that's where he would find Demetri and his newborn.

He was right. Stepping inside, he saw Demetri standing behind the bar on the other side of the room, and the newborn sitting on a stool in front of it. He had a bottle of what Alec guessed to be vodka in his hand and the girl had a metal shaker sitting in front of her. She looked ready to vomit, so he was left to guess she wasn't a fan of donated blood.

As he walked across the room, he gave a smile to the newborn. "It's not the greatest, no, but Heidi left to get you some actual food, and should be back in like an hour."

There was hope in her eyes when she looked back at Demetri. "So does that mean I don't have to drink this?"

Cocking a brow, Demetri grinned. "Not in the slightest. Finish it, Neos." He chuckled slightly as she sighed and dropped her head, but turned his attention to Alec, who took up a stool of his own. "So, are the Cullens on a flight back to the US yet?"

Leaning back in his stool, Alec threw one of his arms over the back and grinned. "Nope. They're in the sublevels."

Blinking, Demetri set his bottle down and crossed his arms. "Really?" When Alec nodded, he made a noise in the back of his throat. "Huh... I thought for sure Aro was going to let them off."

A smirk to rival the tracker's settled on Alec's lips as a chuckle sounded from his throat. "So did Carlisle. Dem, Man, you should have seen it." Resettling himself with his forearms on the bartop, excitement entered his voice. "They didn't give us too much shit in Washington because of that very reason. The dumb shit told his followers it was better to face things then, but swore it would be fine and they would be home in a couple of days, so when detainment was called for, he lost his fucking mind. Dude, like... you don't think of Carlisle Cullen saying fuck, in any of its variations, but good God, he's got one hell of a potty mouth. The only one that didn't fight was the empath; which is shocking beyond comprehension, because he's the only one that could have won. We have no defense against his gift, and he knows it, but all he did was lean against the wall while all Hell broke loose in the throne room." He paused then, and curled his lip. "No... I take that back. He also gave Carlisle the finger when Cullen demanded he do something."

Bella was actually paying wrapped attention to the conversation, but didn't have the time to interject with a question before Demetri spoke again. "I'm not all that surprised, honestly. Jasper Whitlock has been a wanted vampire for decades. Something else I'm sure he knows. Personally, I think he's tired of hiding, and finally getting caught has come with a level of relief. Why would he actively make it worse on himself by fighting the inevitable?"

Cocking his head, Alec licked his lips. "Hiding? Is that what you think he's been doing?"

Demetri shrugged. "By all technical accounts, the Cullen Coven is a peaceful one, for as many vampires as there are under one roof. For the last century we've never once had to seek them out for being stupid, and this time was no different. They called us. Residing with a coven most of us think is ridiculous and one where the leader is such good buddies with the leader of the race? It me, it seems a logical conclusion to stick close to people we have no desire to go anywhere near when you're wanted for war crimes. So, either he was hiding and is tired of it, or he realizes just how bad the coven's fuck up was and still retains a sliver of his human military honor so is willing to face the consequences of it."

Tapping his nail against the lacquer bartop, Alec frowned. "See... that's something to take in account, Dem." When his boss cocked a brow, Alec cleared his throat. "He's not the only Whitlock wanted for war crimes."

Demetri snorted. Stepping away from the back of the bar, he leaned over the top and reached his hand into his jacket that Bella was still wearing. Winking at her when she gaped at him, he pulled his cigarette case out of the inner pocket. Retaking his position, he opened the case, took one out and then presented the open case to his charge.

Blinking and clearing her throat, Bella shook her head. "No, thank you. I don't smoke."

Nodding once, he clicked it closed and tossed it to Alec, who did take one, and lit his cigarette. Blowing the smoke from his nose, Demetri shook his head. "I'm not concerned about the Captain. First of all, I'm not even completely convinced the man actually exists and isn't just some made up, imaginary entity that was created in the darkest time of the Major's life. If he does exist, no one has seen hide nor hare of him in what? 73 years? That being the case, either Peter Whitlock is the best player of hide and seek ever created or he's dead."

Lifting a finger and opening his mouth for a rebuttal, Alec paused and after a moment, gave a nod. "Okay... I'll give you your points."

Demetri wasn't done making them yet, either. "Also, he's said to have... um... fuck..." snapping his fingers, "right, the gift of intuition. If he has even has a scrap of it, he would be wise to stay as far away from this place as he can fucking get."

Once again unable to argue, alec nodded and turned his sights on the newborn with a spark in his eyes. "So, Stella..." propping his chin in his palm, he grinned. "Wanna know what the Cullen's punishment is for what they did to you?"

Demetri jolted. "They've already been sentenced?"

Grin growing, Alec nodded slowly. "Uh huh, and it's... masterful." Returning his eyes to the newborn, who was looking at him with an expression that was a cross between excitement and anticipation. "I don't know what the fuck heartstrings of Caius' you pulled, but he took the reigns for this judgement, and he didn't hold back. Every layer of this serves more than one purpose, and I'm positive Demetri here can figure out what they are. The Cullens will be residing in the dungeons for the next 12 days, each in their own cell, with their very own human. Any Cullen that feeds before the end of the 12th day is to be destroyed."

Bella watched as Alec lifted a brow. She understood the significance of it, and waved him on.

He didn't disappoint.

"Those that don't are to serve a year on the guard, under Demetri, for every day you suffered, with an additional decade tacked on the end for the decision to make the call that led to that." He pointed at the side of her face, and cocked his head. "Demetri..." turning to look at him. "Why do you think Master Caius would make such a ruling?"

Bella, too, looked at Demetri and actually gulped, shrinking into her seat as the look on the tracker's face. There was a nefarious gleam in his eyes and a devilish smirk on his lips. His voice, however was jovial. "Oh... am I going to enjoy this."

Bella gave him a minute to elaborate, but when he didn't, she huffed. "I don't see why this is such a 'masterful' ruling. That's 22 years they'll be here, and I don't want to be within 22 miles of them for 22 seconds."

Alec chuckled as he again leaned back in his stool. "That's because you don't know what it's like to work under this asshole. What this is, for those that make it through the next 12 days, is 22 years of having their collective asses kicked, every single day. Volturi Guards live or die at Demetri's discretion. Gifted or not, those that aren't worth a fuck don't last long around here."

Bella looked at Alec a moment longer before shifting her eyes to Demetri, who's face hadn't changed. All his did was lift a shoulder. "I don't tolerate anyone putting the lives of others in jeopardy. They will either play by my rules, or it's game over for them. I don't give a singular fuck who they are, or what they think they can do. They will either do as I say, or they will discover being a vampire is _not,_ actually, the worst thing that can happen to them."

Once again wiping away venom from her mouth and chin, she cleared her throat. "Remind me to never get on your bad side."

Demetri snorted and Alec rolled his eyes, the latter being the one that spoke. "That ridiculous statement aside, think about it, Stella, and everything you can do them over the next two decades."

Lip curling in the corner, Bella scoffed. "I can't even drink out of a fucking cup." Pointing to the back of her jaw, she showed him the hole and narrowed her eyes. "It leaks when I tilt my head back." Scoffing a huff, she shook her head. "I can't do shit, Dude. That's why I don't want to be anywhere near them. Any time I see them, smell them, or someone even mentions them, I'm overtaken by this... indescribable rage, and I can't do anything about it."

Biting into the corner of his lip, Alec shifted in his seat, and laced his fingers together. "Believe it or not, Stella, I do understand exactly how you feel right now. Well... not physically. I can't begin to understand what it's like to have the mobile limitations you have, but that void you feel? That I know all too well. My sister Jane and I were abandoned by our sire. I can't even tell you if it was a male or female that bit us; I simply don't know. Even now our sire is a topic best left alone. However, because of that I can say with certainty, eventually, that void will be filled with something besides the desire for revenge." It was then he grinned. "Until then," he pointed at Demetri, "you have Satan's favorite demon to do your bidding."

Shifting her eyes to Demetri, she watched as his smirk grew enough to show his teeth and his arms went out to the side. When he winked at her, it was like she was struck with a lightning bolt, and finally understood what Alec meant before about what she could do to them. It wasn't _she_ would be the one to do it, but it would be what _she_ wanted done. Jolting, she gasped. "Oh... okay I get it now." She lit up before the two male's eyes and smiled as wide as she was able. "When do we get started?"

Demetri, laughing outright, shook his head. "In thirteen days. For now, we are going to use the time the Cullens are sequestered under the palace to get you settled in it and on the road to recovery." When Bella nodded, he looked at Alec. "Find Rachel and have her add the unused room at the end of the hall to her list to be cleaned."

Alec grinned. "You need to keep up, Dem. She's already there. I let her in the wing before I came in here. I also already placed the call to Aurora. She'll be here in the morning."

At Demetri's nod, Bella piped up again. "Who's Aurora?"

Looking at her, Demetri smiled. "Seamstress." At her lifted brow, he grabbed the lapel of the jacket he was wearing and gave it a shake. "Custom tailored. One of the most comfortable things you'll ever wear... when they fit properly." When she nodded her understanding, he cocked his head. "Give what colors you want some thought, and let her know when she takes your measurements. If you don't, you'll end up with a dark grey."

Blinking, Bella grunted. "Not black?"

Shaking his head, Demetri recrossed his arms. "There are seven people within these walls that are allowed to wear black. The three masters and the four Elites; the two of us, Jane and Felix. Everyone else wears varying shades of grey to signify where they rank amongst the guard. Since you are not on the guard, you can wear whatever you want. Blue, green, pink, purple, neon orange, canary fucking yellow. It truly does not matter. The only thing you need it for is to cover your skin when in the sun because, for the fact this is a vampire den, there is a shockingly little amount of shade. That said, if you do want your own in black, no one will say shit to you about it. However, it cannot be solid. You will have to add some kind of design in color because you're not an Elite guard and we don't need any accidents due to someone else's stupidity."

Nose wrinkling, Bella looked back and forth between the two vampires. "What does that mean?"

A new voice answered the question. "It means he's concerned for your safety."

All three vampires in the lounge turned to look at the door, Alec dipping his head to Caius while Demetri merely lifted a brow, but the king only had eyes for the newborn, who had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do.

After a moment, Caius shifted his eyes. "Alec." When the aforementioned vampire stood from his stool, Caius then jerked his head to the side. "Out."

Nodding without delay, Alec clicked his tongue. "Of course." He then looked at Demetri. "I'll go check on Rachel's progress."

Demetri waited until Alec was about halfway to the door before he called out to him. Waiting until he was turned around, though he continued his exit while walking backward, Demetri leveled him with a look. "Fuck her in your own room. The scent of desperate whore is impossible to get out of the furnishings."

"Ya know what?" Without missing a beat, Alec lifted both arms and gave him the finger with both hands. "Fuck you, Demetri." Dropping one arm, he point at him with the other. "It was one time, and the stupid bitch..." At the sound of a throat clearing cut him off. Looking at Caius for a moment, Alec's head dropped back on his shoulders with a hard sigh. Finally, he looked back at Demetri, bending at the waist in a bow with his arms slightly out to the side. "As you wish, Master Demetri."

Demetri pinched the bridge of his nose with a grunt as he heard the door close, and had his lips pressed together when he returned his attention to Caius. "I do have to work with him."

Caius just lifted an uncaring shoulder. "I will never understand why you allow the other guards to think themselves your equal."

Scratching the under part of his chin, he hummed. "Well, see, it's like this." Crossing his arms, he leaned back against the back of the bar. "When you're in the field and your ass is on the line, and they save said ass, the footing levels out and you tend to not really care what words are chosen during casual conversation."

Clasping his hands behind his back, Caius titled his head. "That's what you consider casual?"

Clicking his tongue once, Demetri cocked a brow. "Was there something I could do for you, Master Caius?"

Shaking his head, Caius continued his way into the room. "No. I'm not here to talk to you. I would like to have a word with her."

Brow rising even higher, Demetri scoffed slightly. "I'm not leaving."

Caius didn't spare him a glance as he took the seat Alec vacated. "I didn't ask you to." Casting a sidelong look at the tracker, he then smirked. "I could use a drink, though."

Demetri rolled his eyes. "You pompous bastard." Even still, Demetri turned and grabbed a glass to make a vodka cranberry.

Caius, however, ignored the jab, and focused on the newest addition to the coven. "I'm sure Alec told you of my decision regarding the Cullen coven." When she nodded, he continued. "I want you to know it was not my intention to make you uncomfortable, though I am quite sure that is a likely side effect of the ruling. This is as much your home now as it ours, and you should not feel as though anything within these walls are a threat to you."

While he was talking, Bella took a drink of the blood Demetri gave her in a metal shaker, her hand over the hole in her face to keep as much of it in her mouth as she could, but it still ended with her having to wipe what escaped and ran down the side her neck. She lowered her eyes when Caius frowned slightly at the sight, swallowing hard and clearing her throat. "Sorry. I know it's not exactly pleasant."

Caius didn't give the statement an ounce of acknowledgment, seeing no reason to, and instead continued where he left off, ignoring the glass Demetri set by his forearm. "I am aware of the biggest issue that revolves around certain members that coven, and I simply wanted to ensure you understood your standing within this one."

Remaining quiet for a moment, Bella shifted her eyes to Demetri as he leaned once again against the back bar. This had been just about the same conversation she had been having with him when Alec came in, so with a shallow nod, she returned her eyes to Caius. "He was explaining the hierarchy to me when Alec came in."

Picking up his glass, Caius hummed as he brought it to his lip and spoke around the rim. "Has he yet gotten to the part of the explanation that defines the difference between the guard and the coven?" When Demetri responded in the negative, Caius licked his lips as he set his glass down. "The coven itself consists of 9... well, ten now including you. Every other vampire is merely a guard of some rank. You can tell their rank by how dark their cloaks are. The darker the grey, the higher they stand. Likewise, the lighter, the lower they stand. You will see guards in white; those are the newest and have yet to be assessed and assigned."

That more or less just reiterated what had been told to her, but she was nothing if not curious what was in the future for the Cullens if they got past the next 12 days. "How are people assessed?"

Caius shrugged as he took another sip of his drink. "I haven't a clue, nor do I care to find out. That is Demetri's job. From the moment they arrive, anyone who is to serve is his responsibility and he has his own way of making those decisions. To my knowledge, he's never been wrong when it comes to where he assigns someone, so no one questions his choices." Setting his glass back down, he crossed his arms. "If he can even explain his mindset for how he does his job, he can explain it to you later. For the moment, how about we get back to the topic at hand and talk about your place amongst us."

When he raised a brow, Bella wiped her chin and nodded, so he continued. "When Demetri took on the position of your guardian, in the eyes of newborn law, he became your legal sire. Before you get upset, no one can, or will attempt, to replaces the one that made you. This is strictly legally speaking. All it means is, he is now responsible for your care, welfare, and upbringing. However, that said, since he is now, for all intent and purpose your sire, it gives you an automatic place within the coven that will last for the rest of your life, regardless of your actual presence with our coven; unless you mate and join another, of course. Now, do not read more into this part than there actually is. His assumed sirehood of you places you on par with any other vampire sired by a member of the coven, and there are two others of that status. Their names are Athenodora and Sulpicia."

Bella sat as silently as she could while Caius talked, forcing herself to remain as calm as she could when he started talking about sires. She couldn't help the response she had to the topic, and she could say with a pointed nastiness, she didn't like it. It made her feel empty and alone, even being in the presence of others. It set a rock of longing in her gut, and it was a literal fight against herself not to whimper, whine, or otherwise make a noise of discomfort.

Even still, forcing herself to focus enough to listen, she sighed. What he was saying made sense, even if it did hurt for reasons she despised. But, she couldn't understand one thing. "What part of that was I not supposed to read more into that what you were saying?"

Demetri cast Caius a sidelong look of pure annoyance. There were plenty of other ways to tell her all of that without the stab to her unbeating heart, even if it was the most direct. There was a nearly silent growl in his throat as he shook his head and looked back at Bella. "Athenodora and Sulpicia are Caius and Aro's mates, respectively."

Seeing Bella's eyes go wider than he thought possible, Caius held his hands up. "That is what you were not supposed to read into. Aro and I turned our mates simply because it makes the bond between us stronger."

Bella ran her mouth over her jacket covered shoulder as she made a deliberate and visibly noticeable attempt to not make eye contact with Demetri as every moment that transpired between them since Washington flashed before her eyes at what she was sure was meant to be a simple explanation. It wasn't just him getting progressively nicer, or his blatant over protectiveness when it came to her; it was how she felt in those moments. When the handful of times she heard him refer to her as his popped into her head, she awkwardly cleared her throat. "I don't... I don't think I, uh... I don't think I want to have this conversation anymore."

As Caius went to open his mouth, Demetri beat him to it. "As you wish, Agapimenos. However, to set the record straight. They are _not_ the only childe of the coven." Eyes cutting to Caius, his voice showed his annoyance. "Felix was sired by Aro." When all Caius did was roll his eyes, Demetri returned his to his charge. Leaning forward and uncrossing his arms, he reached across the bar and plucked a small stick that was stuck in Bella's matted hair. Chuckling, he gave her a grin and changed the subject. "How about a shower?"

Those were like magic words to her in that moment. Lord only knew what else was stuck in her hair, and she could literally feel the seventeen layers of nasty that coated her skin from running through a wet forest for two weeks. Eyes lighting up, she gave him as wide of a smile back as she could, the moment before forgotten. "Please?"

With a snicker, Demetri held his hand out toward the door. "After you, Neos." He waited for her to scramble off her stool before he took the path of least resistance from behind the bar. With a hop and a swing of his legs, he cleared the wooden barrier, landing lightly next to the extremely excited newborn. Looking down at her, he kept his smile on his face. "I'll show you to your room where you can get cleaned up, and after that, we'll see about getting you a real meal when Heidi comes back. Does that sound alright to you?"

Was he stupid?

It was that exact thought that was clearly read on her face that had Demetri chuckling and leading her from the lounge and into the hall after a dip of his head to Caius, and a wave to him from Bella.

It wasn't until they were several feet away from the door that Bella looked up at her 'guardian', and bit her lip in thought. "I'm curious about something."

His hands clasp behind his back as he walked next to her toward the set of double doors that blocked the East Wing from anyone but the Elite guard, Demetri glanced down at her from the corner of his eye. "And what's that?"

"No one actually answered why I can't have a flat black jacket." Rolling her hands over each other, she licked her lips. "I get it's a safety thing, but not why it's a safety thing."

Nodding once in his understanding, Demetri cocked his head to the side as he took in her height next to him. "Black, in and of itself, is a sign of status within our ranks. It is what separates those who are a Volturi, and those who are a Voltalian. It goes back to what Caius was talking about when it came to the difference between the two. Things get very boring around here if you don't have anything to do, so Felix, Alec, Jane, and myself are on the Guard because we want to be, not because we have to be. That said, there will always be four Elite guards, regardless of anything else for reasons I just don't feel like getting into, and you're not much taller than Jane. If you were to have your hood up, it would be very difficult to tell the two of you apart from behind. The four of us deal with an unbelievable amount of bullshit when it comes to those that think if they kill one of us they will take our place, and I have no idea how long it will be until you will be able to defend yourself against an attack should you be on your own and someone mistakes you for her."

Nodding slowly, only partly understanding the explanation, Bella cocked her own head to the side. "So... which is which?"

Stopping at the door, Demetri pushed on a wooden panel on the wall, opening the hidden key pad behind it. Typing in the code to allow them entry, Demetri hummed. "Voltalian is the surname of the coven, and where the shortened Volturi comes from. When you hear others talk about the Volturi, they are talking strictly of the Guard, and what most vampires are so afraid of. Then again, the Guard is 150 strong, and a force to be afraid of." Looking down at her again with a smirk wide enough to show his teeth, he chuckled that same deep, sinister sound he made when he talked about how much he was going to enjoy what he was going to do to the Cullens. "I've made sure of it."

Pushing open the double doors, he saw her brow lift, and he shook head. "Don't look at me like that. I'm a mean son of a bitch, but I am also lazy as fuck. If I could sit on my ass and do my job, I probably would. However, I have a philosophy and not once in over two thousand years has it been proved wrong, so it's not likely to change."

Tucking her lips into her teeth to smother her amusement at the clear offence he took to her questioning expression, Bella looked up at him as they walked down the hall lined with 8 doors, four on each side. "And what's that?"

Stopping at the last door on the left, Demetri looked down at her and clicked his tongue. "If you work smart, you'll never have to work hard a day in your life. The fear my guards strike in the hearts of vampiric society is enough to curb the more tyrannical bullshit and eliminates the need to beat the masses into submission. I did that once and, while it was fun, I'd rather not have to do it again."

Bella nodded slowly as he finished. It made sense, she guessed. Why do the same thing more than once if you didn't have to? It was like chores, in her mind. You do the same thing enough times, you begin to resent them. She had a resentment for dust bunnies, so in comparison, she supposed having a resentment against always having to stomp some poor bastard into the ground could get old if you had to do it often enough.

She saw Demetri reach for the handle of the door they were in front of, but took a second to look around and noticed something. "Why is the handle on this door different from the others?"

Pushing down on the lever style handle, Demetri pushed open the door and leaned against it, giving her enough room to enter. "These push down lever style handles are easier for newborns to use because they don't have to grip it, which means less chance they will break it. Once you are in full control of your strength, it will be changed to match the rest."

As she slipped past him into the room, she looked up at him with bright humor in her eyes. "Smart, not hard, right?"

Demetri winked. "Never said it just went for the Guard." Watching her take in the space for a moment, Demetri then crossed his arms. "The code for the doors at the end of the hall is 7672 and, while it would be my preference you didn't go running around by yourself just yet, it is bound to happen sooner or later. With that said, there are certainly places around here that are completely off limits to you while on your own."

Looking over her shoulder at him, Bella's brows drew down. "Like what?"

Demetri lifted a shoulder. "The barracks, the training field, the entirety of the catacombs to name a few. You are not going to care for how this sounds, but the truth is, the palace is no place for a defenseless, unmated female to be gallivanting around by herself. I'm fast, even by vampire standards, but not even I am fast enough to navigate the maze of hallways when there is a threat directly in front of you. It is asking for unneeded trouble, so for now, when I say something is off limits," locking his eyes on hers, "it is off fucking limits."

Rearing back from the venom in Demetri's voice, Bella blinked. He had never spoken to her like that yet, and quite honestly, she never wanted him to do it again. He was absolutely terrifying, and the thought of his bad side had her nodding with wide eyes. "O... kay. Off limits is off limits, I got it."

Rolling his head slightly on his shoulder, Demetri let out a hard sigh and clicked his tongue. "Anyway... this is your room from now on, so feel free to do with it as you please. If it is not to your liking, you are welcome to redecorate or rearrange as you see fit. If you choose to rearrange anything, please, ask for help. You might be capable of moving shit on your own, but you are not capable of doing so without breaking it."

Knowing an absentminded nod when he saw one, he roughly cleared his throat. He could clearly tell he was running out of time with her at the moment, and continued when he once again held the newborn's waning attention. "The only thing you cannot do is change the floor plan itself, and only because it is an unbelievable pain in the ass to put plumbing in this place, so the bathroom stays where it is. However, you are more than welcome to update it if you wish. It's been... oh, probably twenty years at least since it was last done."

She nodded again, and Demetri pushed himself off the door and closed the distance between them. When Bella shrunk back slightly, he paused just long for her to get her nerves in check before he reached for her and began to unbutton his jacket, looking at her as he spoke again. "If you need anything, my room is directly across the hall. Simply say my name and I'll hear you just fine." Slipping his jacket off her shoulders, he turned half way to the side and tossed it on the bed. He said she could keep it as long as she wanted, and she hadn't said he could have it back yet.

As he was leaving her to get cleaned up, something popped into Bella's head and she called out for him to wait. When he looked back at her from the doorway, she scratched at one of the graze marks on her chest through her shredded shirt. "I don't have anything to shower with."

Placing his hand on the doorknob, Demetri looked back at her with a hum. "Since Rachel isn't in here any longer, there should be plenty of towels and toiletries in the bathroom for you. If not, let me know and I'll get you what you need. There is no saving your clothing, so just rip them off and toss them in the trash with whatever else it is you destroy."

With a frown on her lips, Bella looked down at herself, and saw that, to her horror, he was right. She knew her shirt was a lost cause, but she hadn't realized just how much torture she put her jeans through. Not looking up as a sour look settled on her features, she grunted. "Will do."

It wasn't until she heard her door clicked shut she looked up again, still pissed off about her favorite jeans. Letting her eyes roam the room, she decided to redirect her thoughts to what she wanted to change. The furnishings themselves were pretty awesome. It was old, she could tell that, but the woodwork was masterful and she found she really liked the details of the carvings in the head and foot board of the bed and the ones on the dresser. The vanity was certainly going to go, though. It was big and bulky and she had no need for it. Or, maybe she could nix the mirror and instead put shelves in its place and use it as a desk instead.

As her mind took on the task of redecorating her room, she turned and went to the bathroom, only knowing which of the sets of doors led to it because it was left open. It was a basic bathroom, but it was huge. It was easily twice the size, if not more, than what she was used to, and it was all hers.

She also discovered Demetri was right. On the counter of the double sink there was a stack of fluffy towels and when she looked to where the shower was, it was like an army of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash bottles lining the low windowsill. The fact there was a window in the shower would have been slightly off putting if it wasn't that frosted block style window. Everything outside of it was distorted to her, and she was pretty high up, so she figured it was more for light than it was for a view. Besides, on the same wall in the bedroom itself was a set of french doors that opened to a balcony, which served to provide her with a beautiful view of the walled in gardens.

She was so excited at the prospect of getting clean, it wasn't until after she did as she was told and ripped her clothes off she was struck with the realization she didn't actually have anything else to put on. She stared horrified at the useless scraps of cloth for she didn't know how much time before she groaned and dropped her chin to her chest. "Son of a bitch."

Time seemed to pass completely different to her as she debated her options. She was quick to come to the conclusion she didn't have many, and with growled sigh, grabbed one of the towels. Opening it and shaking it out, she was heartened to discover it was pretty big, so there was that.

This was also the first time being clawed to shit didn't work against her. It was her non-dominant arm that faced the wrath of the wolf, and she could bend it at the elbow. So, when she was able to get her towel wrapped around her, she used that hand to keep it closed and was able to use her movable arm for opening her door.

Pausing long enough to look down the hall to make sure no one else was present, because she didn't know who the other rooms belonged to, or more to the point if they were occupied, she quickly crossed the ten foot hall and raised her right arm, made a fist, and knocked on Demetri's door.

Demetri, who had also decided to use this time to take a shower, had just pulled off his undershirt when he heard the timid knock on his door. Glancing at it with a creased brow, he picked his watch up off the vanity in his bathroom and checked how long it had been since he left her to her own devices and grunted when he saw it had only been four minutes. "Perhaps I should have turned on her shower for her."

He had thought he was prepared for anything when he opened his door, but he was wrong. Truthfully, what he most expected was to discover a flood from her breaking the shower, but nothing could have prepared the tracker to open the door and come face to face with his charge in nothing but a towel. As quickly as he could he averted his eyes, but he was never going to forget that sight. Clearing his throat, Demetri tsked. "Problem, Neos?"

Likewise, Bella was having just as much of an issue with the eye full of Demetri's bare torso she got, which would be forever burned into her mind since he decided to answer his door in just his slacks. He wasn't even wearing socks anymore. She had a slightly harder time removing her eyes from his exposed flesh, but was able to do so by looking straight down. However, that did little to erase the image of every bite mark and various other scars that littered his upper body. She wasn't sure if it was shocking or not, but to see she wasn't the only person that didn't have perfectly smooth and unblemished skin did actually make her feel a little better about her own scars.

Biting into her bottom lip, her voice showed she was more than slightly uncomfortable. What she didn't know though, was her scent clearly said she wasn't nearly as much as she wanted to be. "I don't have any clothes to put on."

Why couldn't she have just broken the fucking shower? Pinching the bridge of his nose at the shift in Bella's scent, Demetri was almost left with no choice but to cut off his breathing. "Gamó." However, he was granted a slight reprieve when she presented her issue, and he was thankfully able to put a slight bit of distance between himself and her. Backing up, he turned and looked out his own balcony windows, a frown tugging at his lips. Since the day was coming to an end, Jane was likely already out of the palace, so getting something from her for the night, or handing over his credit card for a shopping spree, was out of the question, leaving him with no choice but to improvise for the time being.

Against his better judgement, he signaled his charge into his room, shutting the door behind her. She was in only a towel after all, and he would probably kill someone if they saw her like that. Leaving her standing next to a chair that was situated by the fireplace, Demetri went to his own closet, grabbing a pair of his pajama pants and a t-shirt. The pants had a drawstring, so they should stay up if tied tight enough. But, being that he was a foot taller than she was, he was sure he would have to do something about the length once she actually had them on.

When he was taking her his clothes, something caught his eye, so instead of handing them over right away, he dropped them over the chair arm and turned on the lamp that was on the end table next to it. Brushing her hair out of his way, he took her clawed arm in his grip and dipped his head, getting a good look at them for the first time.

Eyes crinkling in the corners, he made a noise in his throat. With a click of his tongue, he told her to wait there and went to his bathroom. After digging around in one of the vanity drawers, he pulled out what he was looking for and went back to the very confused female in his bedroom, who was trying to find what had caught his attention.

Flicking her eyes to Demetri as he came back into the room, she saw what he had in his hand, and cocked a brow at him. "Why do you even have tweezers?"

Demetri just shrugged as he took up a position behind her and once again took her arm in his grip. "Over time, you'll find vampires never actually lose one common human trait that basically everyone has."

Trying to see what he was doing, Bella huffed when Demetri turned her head back away from her shoulder. Rolling her eyes and jutting out a hip, She crossed her arms as best she could over her chest, and snipped at him. "And what's that?"

Glancing at the newborn that was about to lose her shit completely, he chuckled as he shoved the tweezers into the slash and grabbed what was inside. "We never quite lose the desire to..." With a hard jerk of his arm, he ripped the foreign object from her shoulder socket, looking at it as Bella ripped herself free of his hold. "Acquire the most random shit."

Bent at the waist, Bella didn't know what the fuck he just did, but Jesus Christ did it hurt. Hand clamped over her shoulder, that was now on fire, Bella let her tongue go, but couldn't quite finish any particular sentence. "Son of a... Mother... Jjjjjjjjj..." Propping herself against the stone wall, she began to bang the back of her head against it to try and redirect some of the pain she was in. Her breathing was coming out in pants, and she opened glazed over eyes, and dead at Demetri, and whined. "Why? What the fffff. What have I ever done to you to deserve that? All I wanted was some pants. Maybe a shirt." Shaking her head as she clamped her shaking hand over her eyes. "Fuck it, I can live in a towel." Not completely sure her legs would support her, she still pushed herself off the wall, her breathing still hard. "Fuck you, very fucking much."

More than just slightly amused by her reaction, Demetri shot from his spot, leaning against his door, blocking her exit, and holding up what it was he pulled from her shoulder between two fingers. He didn't say a word, just waited.

Bella reared back from his materialization from nowhere, blinking when she discovered he wasn't lying about being fast. She didn't even see him move. It was like... he just transported from one place to the next. Still, she was pissed off and in pain, so she went to snap at him to move when she caught sight of what he was holding, and instead, her lip curled. "What the hell is that?"

Looking at what he was hold himself, Demetri's head cocked to the side. "That... is a broken piece of a shifter's claw."

Not sure at all how to respond to that, Bella's voice was still louder than necessary. "Well.. thank you for taking it out."

Dropping the claw into Bella's outstretched hand, Demetri crossed his arms. "Move your arm."

Head snapping up from her inspection of the claw, she was quick to shake her head. "You know I can't. I haven't been able to since..."

Demetri pushed himself off his door. He wouldn't stop her from leaving again, and he wasn't going to force her to do something she wasn't ready to do. But, he did cut her off as he did so. "The shifter broke it's claw on your shoulder." Leaning on the arm of his chair, he crossed his ankles as he returned his eyes to Bella's. "I told you before, the only way to find the extent of an injury is to put it through its paces." Nodding at the claw in Bella's hand, he continued. "That was lodged in the socket, and since I didn't see any actual damage below the skin of your shoulder, probably because of your jaw, that is most likely what prevented you from moving your arm."

Bella, who was looking back and forth between Demetri and the claw in her hand, frowned. She understood what he was saying, but she wasn't sure she could handle the disappointment if he was wrong and she still couldn't move her arm. Closing her fingers around the claw, she then looked at her shoulder, her frown deepening.

Demetri watched as her thoughts floated across her face, but still wasn't ready to brace for impact. There wasn't a full second between Bella lifting her injured arm and him finding himself flat on his back being strangled by a, clearly, very thankful newborn... that he was very attracted to... who was wearing nothing but a towel.

Bella, who was completely oblivious to the reaction Demetri had to her being stretched out on top of him, squeezed his next one more time with one last exuberant 'thank you', rolled off him and to her feet, and darted from the room, grabbing his clothes on the way out. Never before had she been so excited, and all she could currently think about was how much easier it was going to be to get a shower.

Demetri simply remained sprawled out on his bedroom floor where he landed when he was tackled, closing his eyes when he heard the sound of the doorknob get crushed in his charge's excitement, and sighing when he heard her door slam shut.

Pressing the pads of his fingers between his eyes, he slid his tongue along behind his teeth. Opening his eyes, let out a breath through puckered lips. "Well... shit." Dropping his arm, he then wrinkled his nose "There goes a hot shower."


	8. Chapter 8

For the first week Bella was in Italy, she spent most of her time redesigning her bedroom, and it now looked completely different that it had on her first night. The biggest change, and what was probably her favorite, was the fireplace. She absolutely did not like the mantle or the hearth, and when she asked about them being removed, she was told it was no problem, but not until after Aurora came and went.

And she showed up exactly when she said she would.

During the session, Demetri had lounged on Bella's bed with a book, more for her comfort than anything else. The older female wouldn't do anything to the infant, and Demetri knew it, but Bella didn't, so to keep her from getting too wound up, he agreed to stay when asked to.

Over the hour she was there, Aurora didn't just take Bella's measurements, she actually sat down and sketched out different designs and cuts, showing them Bella since she would be the one wearing them, and let her have more say than Demetri had ever seen the seamstress give anyone. She also pulled out different materials and color swatches of what she had on hand, but insisted if Bella wanted something she didn't, she could get it and make the jacket without a delay in delivering the others. By the time she left, and after Demetri's assurance Bella really could have whatever, and however many, she wanted, with the singular exception of a solid black floor length jacket of course, an order was placed for eight in various cuts, materials, and colors.

When she had them, Aurora handed Demetri a copy of Bella's measurements, which he passed on to Rachel, along with his credit card, with the order to fill Bella's closet with everything from clothing to just lounge around in to a more upscale wardrobe and sent her to Florence where the selections would be vastly larger than what was offered in Volterra. While the latter part of the request made Bella grunt, she didn't say a word about it. Even as a human she had dress clothes, and she assumed that, eventually, jeans and a t-shirt wouldn't cut it as far as appropriate attire went for the given circumstance. That was also the time Bella got to pick the color scheme of her room, and when she said she wanted purples, silver, and black, Rachel said she would look around and see what she could find in those colors for bedding and accent pieces.

Once those chores were seen to, Demetri called in Felix to give him a hand with the fireplace. It hadn't taken the two very long to remove the '70's nightmare', as Bella had called the casing, but when she discovered that under the sheets of firerock was the original stone, she squealed loud enough to actually cause Felix to drop the hammer in his hand. Though he knew the answer before he asked, Demetri made sure she didn't want the stone covered back over. She didn't, so they left the original fireplace exposed, and since they were there, both Demetri and Felix went ahead and became her hands to arrange the room how she wanted it once the mess from the fireplace was cleaned up.

Since the room had gone unused for so long, there wasn't really a lot to move around, but it was then Demetri discovered his little charge was fucking picky. One request from her got a raised brow from him and dirty look from Felix. He understood where she was coming from when it came to the fact that once the two of them left she was stuck with whatever she had until time could be found to fix it, but Christ. He also had to admit it wasn't completely her fault. He and his Second misunderstood what she asked for and ended up making more work for themselves, but when they saw how happy she was with the result, both just smiled at her excitement.

They moved the vanity from the wall between the closet and bathroom doors, putting her bed there so it faced the fireplace instead of the balcony doors. The vanity took the wall where the bed was, and that was where the miscommunication came in. She had asked for the mirror to be removed because she didn't want it, and asked for shelves because she was going to use the vanity for a desk instead of a vanity since there was one in the bathroom and she didn't need two. As it turned out, she only meant for three, maybe four shelves directly above the 'desk', but they took her to mean she wanted an entire shelving unit that took up the entire wall... which is what they gave her.

Before the two men had started the project, Rachel had called Demetri to ask about the bedding, and he called her back on a video call, gave his phone to Bella, and sent her to his room so she could visually pick out what she wanted instead of going off a worded description. Since Rachel had the one she was shopping for on the phone, she used it to her advantage and showed Bella around the store she was in to find out if there was anything else the newborn wanted while she was there.

Bella did call out to Demetri about a couple of things before she told Rachel she wanted it, not wanting to get in trouble because it wasn't her money she was spending, but when he called back to her after the third question 'I'm busy; get whatever the fuck you want', it was with a slight glare on her face at his tone she went ahead and told Rachel to get her the two thousand dollar furnishing set that consisted of a chaise lounge, two chairs, and oval table in black suede. Once she also passed on to find a purple rug as close to the color of the bedding as she could find, along with more of the decorative silver pillows she picked out for her bed, Bella hung up and went back to her room to give Demetri back his phone, and that was when the mistake over the shelving was discovered.

As it turned out, she did have to come clean about the lounging set when she was asked what she planned to do with the rather large expanse of open floor in front of the balcony. In the face of the emotionless expression she was given when she told him it was taken care of already, she gulped before reminding him he did tell her she could get whatever the fuck she wanted, which was backed up by a snickering Felix. After cutting a glare to Felix, Demetri just shook his head. It wasn't the money she spent he cared about. He was fully aware of the fact he would be spending several thousand dollars that day. He didn't care. His concern lied in whether or not what she picked out would actually fit since no measurements were taken, and she picked the shit out, out of spite to his tone. However, he let it go because only time would tell.

Not so much to his shock, but slightly to Bella's, his concerns turned out to not be unfounded. When the set was delivered, it was larger than Bella thought it was since she only saw it through a phone camera, and Rachel didn't know how much room she had to work with, so it ended up needing to be returned for something similar, but smaller. However, Bella was actually happier with the change, so when it was put in place, it completed her room for the time being since Demetri told her she would have to wait a while before he had the time to remodel her bathroom. She had decided she basically wanted an exact replica of his, with different colored tiles, and that was a four day project he didn't currently have the time to do. He did place the order for the materials, though.

Also over that first week, Demetri had been given a _lot_ of latitude when it came to the part of his job that included overseeing the training of the guard; at least in Aro's opinion, which gave Caius no small amount of entertainment. Though it was made perfectly clear Demetri was Bella's primary guardian, he had been pretty firm in her choosing a secondary he could leave her with, that he trusted, when his time was otherwise occupied. Demetri had been taken slightly off guard when she chose Caius, but not so much as when he spoke to the youngest ruler and said ruler agreed. However, when Caius found out just how much Demetri's absence from the training chamber annoyed Aro, Caius made himself busy with other things so he couldn't babysit at the drop of a hat. By Aro's own laws, Demetri's top priority was the infant, and with newborn's inherent skittishness around a large number of bodies, Aro could do nothing but basically sulk and stew in his annoyance.

He wasn't even safe from the taunting when it came to his own mate, though Sulpicia was slightly more subtle about it. It hadn't taken more than a couple of hours for what happened the day the newborn arrived to reach her ears, and she was actually quite fond of the fact someone finally stood up against Aro and his overly intrusive ways. She knew her mate couldn't help himself, and there was quite the excitement going on at the time, but still, even she agreed he should have known better than to attempt to touch the young lady without even so much as prior warning. Then again, she wasn't positive Demetri wouldn't have responded the same even had Aro revealed himself. From the rumors she had been hearing, Demetri's level of viciousness when it came to the girl had not waned in the passing days, and was on par with a male protecting his injured mate, so it was more likely Aro was lucky to even be alive.

The forming relationship between the two since Bella arrived in Italy two weeks ago was merely speculation to everyone but Marcus, who was paying very close attention to the bond between them. Whether or not either one acted on their feelings, that Marcus didn't know, but he could say with positivity whichever one made the first move would certainly not be disappointed with the reaction of the other. Feelings were wholehearted mutual, and he actually felt sorry for anyone that attempted to come between them.

Everyone knew the schedule Demetri stuck to when it came to feeding his charge, and it was during those times he was most interested in how their bond was progressing. Knowing full well the child was unable to bite her prey and needed to be fed if she was going to eat, every eight hours like clockwork, a smile would form on Marcus' lips as the thread that connected the tracker and the newborn became tighter and brighter.

It was those moments Bella found herself most looking forward to over the course of the day. She wasn't sure if Demetri Pavlov'ed her or something, but there was always a certain look in his eyes before the simple question of 'hungry?' that made her very, very excited; even before the word was said. At no point did she ever actually pay attention to how long she went between feedings; she just knew she was fed one human, three times a day because, since she was hand fed, very little of the human's blood didn't end up in her belly, so it was plenty. If by chance it wasn't, she could finally stomach the taste of bagged blood enough to supplement her diet if she had to... and there were days she did. Demetri did his best to keep her days as excitementless as possible to avoid her getting overstimulated, because her getting overstimulated led to her having a fit. She couldn't help it. She wasn't even a month old. Everyone knew it came with the territory of being an infant, so the emotionally driven meltdowns were ignored and forgotten once the mess she made was cleaned up.

However, as the days passed, Bella started to draw out how long it took her to drain the human, because she discovered the longer it took her to eat, the longer she got to spend wrapped up in Demetri's arms. At first, she had tried to get Demetri to let her hold the body, which he did, but no matter much she tried, she couldn't keep it at the same angle he did that prevented the blood from leaking from the hole in the back of her mouth. Each time she tired, he always had to take back over and hold it for her because she would give up. After the fourth feeding Demetri took back over for her, she stopped asking and just let him hold her meal from the start.

As the number of feedings progressed, not only did she start to draw it out, she also started inching backwards; a fact that Demetri was not oblivious to. How the fuck could he be? There was a good forearm length between them when he took over her care, and now, she was actually leaning against him as she ate. In no way did he mind, he just adjusted accordingly. He also wasn't unaware she was taking longer and longer with each feeding. However, he enjoyed feeding her as much as she enjoyed being fed by him, so he said nothing. He did find it amusing she thought she was slick, though.

When Bella finally released the neck of the long dead human, Demetri tossed the body off to the side to be disposed of later, but before she could move, he dropped his arms over his thighs and laced his fingers together, keeping his little charge in place. When she looked up at him, he let out a hard sigh and looked down at her. "I... have things I have to do today, so unfortunately, I won't be able to entertain you for a few hours. Do you think you can behave, or do I need to deliver you to Caius?"

Nose wrinkling, Bella puckered her lips. "Define behave."

A half smirk pulled at Demetri's lips as a brow rose. Dipping his head, he set his forehead against hers, his voice becoming a whisper. "You should know what I expect of you by now, Neos. Do I really need to answer that?"

For the fact Bella had a problem with venom overproduction, her mouth went shockingly dry at how close Demetri was to her. Upon discovering the downside to her decision of closing the distance between her body and Demetri's during feeding time and finding herself with nowhere to go for some distance, she tried to swallow, but found her throat clogged. What made things even worse was she could clearly see the asshole knew exactly what he was doing.

Clearing her throat as best she could, she turned away slightly, her voice both wavered and kinda squeaked. "Um.. nn... no. No, I think I got it."

Leaning toward her, Demetri ran the tip of his nose up the back of Bella's jaw, a chuckle rumbling in his chest at the tremor he felt dance down her spine. Unclasping his hands, he lifted one, using the side of a finger to gently turn her back to looking at him, his other hand settling on her stomach. Slowly, gliding the bridge of his nose along the tip of Bella's, Demetri's already normally deep voice going slightly more so. "You don't sound so sure, Agapimenos."

There was literally no describing the noise that came out of Bella's throat. She couldn't believe he was _right there_ like he was. What was she supposed to do? What did he want her to do? What did she want to do? What did she want him to do?

Her head was swimming, and she felt like she was drowning in his smoldering eyes. She, however, did know she had a whimper in her voice when she was finally able to push it past her lips. "I uh..." When he once again had a chuckle at her expense, she tried again, but she couldn't get an ounce of volume in her voice so it came out breathless and airy. "You're a fucker."

Demetri slid the backs of his fingers along Bella's jaw line, cupping her face and lightly brushing the pad of his thumb across her scarred cheek. "Flattery will get you nowhere, psihi mou."

Once again feeling her mouth go dry halfway down her throat, Bella's lips trembled. Since the woods of Northern Washington, she had always found a certain level of comfort in Demetri's scent, but right now, as it surrounded her, she felt high on it, and there was a clear swoon in her voice when she found it. "You still find compliments in the strangest shit."

A soft hum tickled the back of Demetri's throat. "Or, I don't care what you call me, because..." Dipping his head, he allowed his lips to brush her's as he spoke. "I find _you_ the compliment."

She how no idea how a body made of stone was able to melt, but there she was; a puddle of jello in a Bella shaped mold. Whether it was his words or his actions, she didn't know that either. In his arms, she wasn't angry and just short of losing her temper. The emptiness that had always been there wasn't as much of a void, and she wasn't indescribably lonely anymore.

In his eyes, nothing mattered. He didn't look at her like everyone else did, with a spark of... she didn't know if it was pity, fear, or disgust in their eyes, but none of those emotions were ever in his.

Others made clearly conscious, deliberate decisions to actively avoid her as a whole or at the very least, avoid anything to do with what brought her there in the first place, and it was without comprehension painful when she could see someone coming toward her, watch them look right at the slashes on her face, turn around, and walk away. The most clear case of that was when she was with Caius and someone came to talk to him. It was fine until she turned to look to see who it was, and they actually took a step back before excusing themselves from the room.

Demetri didn't do anything like that. He didn't avoid them or act like they weren't there. He didn't necessarily seek them out, but he did get slightly annoyed with her when she tried to cover them. He said it was because when he spoke to someone, he prefered to see their face. There was also the tender way he would caress her scarred cheek when she got upset when someone pulled some stupid shit. He always told her she had nothing to be ashamed of before asking her if she wanted him to kick their ass. It would give her a giggle and make her feel better, but to this point, she hadn't taken him up on the offer. She didn't need to, because she knew he went ahead and did it anyway.

She didn't know what came over her in that moment. She had no idea why she thought it was a good idea, but she couldn't stop herself; not that she tried very hard. When his lips made the slightest contact with hers when he spoke, all she had to do was angle her chin a millimeter and she sealed her own against his.

The smallest of moans from Bella's throat at the firmer contact was overshadowed by the growl that came Demetri's. For a fraction of a moment, Bella thought she fucked up in a big way, but that fear was just as quickly squashed when the hand on her stomach pulled her closer, holding her tighter, and the hand that was on her cheek slipped into her hair, his fingers tangling in the strands.

There were certain limitations from the claw injury to the bone of Bella's jaw, but it didn't stop Demetri from taking over the kiss. Just because it wasn't possible currently to deepen it, didn't mean in the slightest that it didn't get heated. When it did end, Bella found herself looking into pitch black eyes.

Just like Bella didn't try and stop herself from going for that kiss, Demetri made no attempt to speak without a growl to his voice. "First, I'm going to make you healthy. Then, I'm going to make you mine.

*X*

Whistling a random tune as he bounded down the steps to the catacombs, there was a slight extra bounce to Demetri's step. He was in a spectacular mood, and he was quite willing to murder anyone that tried to change that. The protection Caius had inadvertently given the Cullens from him was coming to an end, and damn was he all but skipping in anticipation.

Reaching the last step, he pulled a set of keys from his belt, the same tune bouncing off the stone walls around him as he approached the door at the end of the walkway. Unlocking it, he pushed the heavy metal door out of his way, and stepped into the detainment hall. Replacing his keys, he clasped his hands behind his back, but he didn't stop whistling until he passed one of the end cells, pausing a moment before taking two steps backwards and turning his head to look inside. His expression smoothing out, he cocked a brow. "Again?"

The vampire inside the cell looked up at his boss, beseechment in his eyes. "I assure you, Master Demetri, it wasn't intentional."

Humming in the back of his throat, Demetri turned his head the other way, looking at other half of the Dumbass Duo. "I suppose you're going to tell me the same." Getting a quick nod, he sighed and shook his head. "I grow tired of these games, you two. This has past the border of unacceptable."

Turning away from his trouble causing guards, Demetri ignored the other occupants of the cellblock and looked at the Dungeon Master. "Let me see the paperwork on my guards."

Standing from his paper covered desk, Carlos dipped his head low with a 'Master Demetri', to which he received a nod of acknowledgement, and handed over the requested report.

He could feel eyes on him, but Demetri said nothing as he looked at the latest reason Aften and Corin were behind bars. He was positive they thought he was going to override the detainment, but he had no intention to. Picking up a pen, Demetri bent at the waste over the desk, set the paperwork down, and spoke to Carlos as he made the changes. "Let's add another week to their detainment, and halve the feedings." He didn't pausing in what he was doing at the cry of his name, and instead spoke with his head down. "I told you I was tired of the games. This will be your last detainment. If you fuck up again, you're done. Honestly, you two spend more time here than Carlos, and he resides down here. I do not have the time nor the patience to deal with you two acting like children while raising an actual child." Signing his name to the bottom of the pages to approve his own changes, he held the papers out to Carlos with one hand has he grabbed the manifest of the last week and opening it with the other, still not acknowledging the Cullens. He would be dealing with them in a moment.

Carlos seemed to come to life more than Demetri had seen him a while. "So the rumors are true? Congratulations, Master Demetri, on your sirehood."

Still not looking up from what he was looking at, Demetri spoke. "While the sentiment is appreciated, Carlos, now is not the time. Manifest from last week, if you would be so kind."

While the Dungeon Master turned away to grab the book that was requested from him, Demetri wiggled his wrist and over extended his arm, moving his sleeve out of his way and getting his watch where he could see it. Clicking his tongue, he hummed. "Three minutes."

The whole time the tracker was in his sights, Edward never moved his eyes. He watched, getting more and more irate as the moments past without a word from him to anyone he deemed important; namely, his family. Ignoring the hard and fast shaking of Alice's head, Edward growled. "Where's my girlfriend?"

Demetri, once again kept his eyes on what he was doing. "I fail to see how keeping track of your female is anyone's responsibility but you own. Some boyfriend you are."

Edward growled in his throat, baring his teeth when he saw the noise had no effect on the tracker at all. "Do you think you're cute?"

Still not picking his head up, simply reaching out for Carlos' offering, Demetri ran a finger on his other hand down the list of names. "My charge certainly does."

He wasn't sure which pissed him off more; the bastard's aloof attitude, or being disrespected. Snarling, Edward snapped. "Where's Bella, you Son of a Bitch."

Opening the other manifest and comparing one to the other, Demetri's voice remained even and off hand. "I am Isabella's guardian, not her keeper. It is my job and my pleasure to protect and provide, not smother. I do not need to know where she is every moment, nor do I need to catalogue her every movement. However, to answer your very disrespectfully asked question, in her chambers, I would imagine." There was grunt from the tracker before he continued. "Then again, there is also the possibility she is in the hall." It was then Demetri finally turned to look at him, and there was a cat that got the canary smirk on his lips. "She is turning into _such_ a naughty girl."

Edward saw something spark in Demetri's eyes, but all he was getting from his mind was a to-do list that would choke an elephant. Growling again, Edward snarled. "I want to see my girlfriend."

Looking back at the manifests on the desk, Demetri's voice leveled back out. " _Ex_ girlfriend, I believe is the term you're looking for. Generally speaking, when someone wants to kill you, the relationship is over. Regardless, I can assure you that is certainly not going to happen."

"You can't keep her from me."

It was with a hard snort Demetri responded. "Would you like to bet on that? I could use a new instructional dummy for the training grounds. I broke the last one."

Reaching the end of his rope, Edward roared. "She's MINE!"

Finally finding what he was looking for, Demetri picked up the pen he had used before and wrote something on the page of the manifest. His tone never wavered, though. "I beg to differ." Closing the book, he held it out to Carlos, glancing at his watch again when it was revealed. "She's mine."

Grabbing the bars of his cell, Edward was all but drooling in his anger. "Because you _stole_ her from me."

Before anyone knew what happened, there was a loud crash as the front of Edward's body slammed into the cell door, his face smashed against the bars. Demetri's hand was wrapped around his throat, holding the prick in place and got got nose to nose with him. "Your time under the protection of Caius' judgement was over two minutes ago, which means your ass now belongs to me for the next twenty-two years. I suggest you watch your tongue, or I will remove it. I _stole_ nothing. You cannot steal a person for they are not property to own. Make such an insinuation about my charge again and it will be your last mistake."

Pushing hard against Edward's throat, Demetri shoved the vampire back with such force, Edward actually bounced across the cell floor until he slammed into the wall at the other end, the human inside screaming as she attempted to move out of the way.

Looking down his nose with narrowed eyes, Demetri taught Edward the proper way to growl at someone. "Allow me to explain this to you. Stealing insinuates two things, Cullen. The first is something was taken without permission. It was your Head of Coven that called and asked for me, personally, which negates that. The other is that something was taken from your direct possession. Considering I found her outside of the defined border of your marked territory, she certainly was not, so that's out as well. What I did, was rescue an infant I found in the middle of the fucking woods about to have her head taken off by a shifter, that again, your Head of Coven called. Do not sit there and accuse me of something I did not do, Cullen; I will not stand for it. Learn to take responsibility for your own actions or this will be longest two decades of your life. Now, are there any other basic vocabulary words you need me to define?"

When Edward wisely remained silent, Demetri growled in his throat. "You may be used to being an eternal high school student, but do not attempt to pull me into your teenage drama bullshit. I am far too old to give a damn, and you are over a hundred. It is time for you to grow up." With once last huffed growl, Demetri turned away from Edward's cell and back to Carlos, speaking as he went back to the desk. "I need three detainment orders and four transfers." There was no wait for the papers, and Demetri spoke again as he began to fill them out. "My charge's comfort is far more important than theirs, so the three Cullens to the left are staying put until such time as I can figure out what to do with them. If nothing comes to mind, they will remain here for the next eleven months." When he saw Carlos nod, he moved on. "Either on their own or as a group, I truly could not care less, once the four Cullens to the right feed, dress them in white and have them taken to the new arrival barracks until I care enough to assess their worth."

Carlisle, who had remained silent, even through Edward's dressing down, in an attempt to show civility in an attempt to have his request to speak to Aro granted, couldn't hold his tongue at the spoken orders from Demetri. He jolted back as if struck, and gasped. "Feed?"

Dropping his head with a hard sigh, Demetri spoke under his breath, though Carlos heard him. "I am literally surrounded by idiots." Slightly picking up his head, he then flicked his eyes the rest of the way up to Carlos'. "I am beginning to wonder, Carlos, who it is that is actually being punished here."

Nodding in agreement, Carlos crossed his arms. "It is a mystery, Sir."

There was a scoffed snort of 'isn't it' from the tracker as he went back to what he was doing, though he addressed Carlisle against his better judgement. "I have always had a rather large question when it comes to your intelligence, Carlisle, but for the Gods; you cannot be so dense as to not know what the words 'feed' means." Slowly turning his head, he looked at the Cullen elder with a raised brow. "Do we need to have another vocabulary lesson?"

Carlisle grunted, and showed he didn't actually know when to keep his mouth shut. "I know perfectly well what feed means. It was my understanding that after this was over we were to be released. We did not harm anyone so this..."

Demetri cut him off without looking at him. "Then by all means, you self righteous bastard; explain the condition of my charge." After a nearly full thirty seconds of silence, Demetri tsked. "So I thought. And you are being released... into my command. It is hardly my fault you lacked the brain power to ask what that meant. If you had, I'm sure we would not be having this rather infuriating conversation because either you would have had the proper understanding of the position you have found yourself in or you would be dead."

Once his name was scribed at the bottom of the four transfers, he set the pen down, turned around, leaned against the desk, and crossed his arms as he locked his eyes on the stupid asshole. "Allow me to clear things up for you. You are not part of Aro's coven, but an unbelievably unfortunate addition to my guard. You can put your full faith in the fact, I do not want you on it anymore than you want to be on it. I do not trust a single one of you a fraction of how far a human can throw you, and that is something that is relatively important considering others will be putting their lives in your hands and I don't think you capable of keeping a pet rock alive. However, since it was not my decision, and it came from above my head, I will be spending every moment of your service making it as difficult as I am fucking able. Why, you might ask? Because I can."

Pausing long enough to light a cigarette, Demetri took a deep drag and blew the smoke out through his nose. "Now, allow me to take this time to clear up a few more things for you. I am in charge. I do not make requests or suggestions; I give orders. I expect those orders to be followed to a 'T' and in a timely fucking manner. I do not tolerate insubordination and punishment for it is swift and severe. You will address me as Sir or Master Demetri. Anything else will result in the removal of some body part, and whatever it is I remove will remain in my possession until you learn to address me properly. This is not up for debate or negotiation. I do not have a solitary fuck to give about who you think you are. For the next twenty-two years, you are who I say you are, and I give a nonexistent shit about your feelings. If you do not believe me, ask my guards who share your block.

"Rank is earned around here, not given simply because you think you deserve it due to some ridiculous superiority complex you have no right to have. You are better than no one else on their first day as a guard. I have seventeen six month olds who hold a position to tell you what to do. I suggest you find your appetite so you can swallow your overabundant pride and make your peace with that. If I find out you are not following your superior's commands, you will follow mine whether you like it or not, and it will be then you find out just how many things are worse than being a vampire.

"You, no matter what you might think to the contrary, are not human. You will either act like the vampires you are, or you will not last long. Something you will want to keep in mind is I am under no obligation to ensure your survival. I don't care who you're friends with, you will receive no special treatment from anyone. If there is any attempt to try and use a fleeting past here against my guards to get them to bow down to you, not only will I beat the literal shit out of you, I will laugh in your face as I do it. If your foolishness puts any of my guards in harm's way, I will kill you, and no relationship with Aro will stop me.

"Now, just so no one can say they were not warned." For the next bit, he looked Edward dead in the eyes as he brought his cigarette to his lips. "So help any of you that are caught anywhere _near_ Isabella. By the time I'm done with the offending party, not only will they wish it was easier to die, but I will make them regret the day their mother made the decision not to suck their daddy's dick instead."

A sinister grin pulled at Demetri's lips then. Turning to Carlisle, he placed the butt of his cigarette between his teeth, and chuckled. "I have one last misunderstanding to clear up for you." Wrapping his lips around the butt, he took his last hit, dropped the smoke, stomped it out and crosses his arms. "I am not a caterer, and this isn't a buffet. You will eat what is provided, or you won't eat."

Horrified at the implication, Carlisle put as much conviction in his voice as he could muster. "We don't kill humans."

A deep, rumbling chuckle sounded from Demetri's throat as his eyes ignited in pure, undiluted pleasure at the emotions from the vampire before him. "You know humans, yes? Correct me if I'm wrong, but their bodies begin to shut down after three days without water, and death comes to claim them within a week, right?" He saw Carlisle's eyes widen slightly, and his smirk grew. "According to Carlos' meticulously kept records, these humans are starting day two. Even with your... questionable intelligence, I think you know where I'm going with this." Keeping his eyes on Carlisle's he spoke to the Dungeon Master. "Carlos... no one leaves this block until every single vampire eats. None of these cells are to open while the residing human's heart continues to beat. Any human that dies as a result of their humanity is to be replaced until the residing vampire feeds. Every human death will result in an additional year of service for... all... seven."

Straightening his spine, Carlos nodded once. "Understood, Master Demetri."

Stomach dropping at what he just heard, Carlisle nearly whimpered. "Why? If you don't want us here anymore than we want to be here, why do anything that would make us stay longer?"

Demetri's head cocked to the side. "I would have thought that answer was obvious. It's fun." At the disgruntled noise he heard, he grinned and bent at the waist, leaning closer to Carlisle. "I'm the bad guy remember?" Pointing a finger at him, "don't get pissed off because I'm better at it than you." Recrossing his arms, "a better question would be why would you make a human suffer such a horrifically painful death?" Clicking his tongue in a tsk. "And once again, so much for that moral superiority, huh? Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. Isn't that about a bitch?"

Pushing himself off the desk he was leaning against, Demetri then rubbed his palms together. "For now, I guess there is only one thing left to say."

It was Emmett that opened his mouth then. "And what's that."

Heading for the door, Demetri turned around and walked backwards, a wide smile on his lips as he held his arms all the way out to the side. "Welcome to the Volturi."


	9. Chapter 9

Leaning against the all of the indoor training grounds, Demetri was paying more attention to footwork than anything else, but not really because he was interested in whether or not the new fighters actually stayed on their feet. Sure, he was physically present, but mentally he was miles away. In the four days since he and Bella shared their first kiss, he had spent most of free time thinking about what he could do to help aid her healing, or at least speed it along.

He did know of one way to at least fix the bone, but as far as he was concerned, it was literally the last resort. It was exceptionally painful and if there was even the slightest movement on her part, either she would lose any future ability to regain full use of hr jaw, or he would have to rebreak it and try again. Neither one of those possibilities were options in his book, but for the moment, it was looking more and more likely he had no other choice.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot that could actually heal a vampire.

He knew she understood there was very little that could be done about the scars, and at least from what she said, she was find with that. It was the broken bone, the inability to open her mouth, and the hole in her cheek she was the most upset about. She told him she could live with the scars if just that could be fixed. No, he wasn't a fan of the thought of her being so incredibly unhappy for the next however long it took to heal on her own, but he _really_ didn't want to be a reason she was hurt even more.

Brought out of his musings, Demetri grunted when Alec appeared next to him, mirroring his position on the wall; arms crossed with one foot propped behind him. "I swear, you let these little pissants have a few days to themselves, and it's like day one all over again."

Alec's nose wrinkled at the stupid mistakes being made by the younger of the bunch, but shrugged it off. "You know how children are." Cocking his head to the side, he then hummed in his throat. "Do you remember, oh God, about three hundred years ago, that trip to Siberia we had to make because of the overpopulation of shifters and the coven called on us to help thin the pack?"

Groaning in his throat, Demetri nodded. "Somethings you can never forget no matter how hard you try. What about it?"

Clearing his throat, Alec clicked his tongue. "While you were looking for the newest addition of the coven that got lost, I ran into a nomad. Nice guy... lots and lots of claw scars. According to him, around fifty years before the coven claimed what they thought was free to claim for themselves, this nomad used that area as a stopping point on this cross-continent trek he made. He never stopped there longer than it took to feed before he moved on, and it wasn't like that point in time humans were easily accounted for, especially in that particular part of the globe. Humans vanished all the time, so it wasn't really a problem.

"In that area, there was a small settlement. Not a village per-sey; it wasn't that big. Only about fifty or so humans. As it turned out, that was where these shifters were coming from."

Nodding slowly, Demetri pursed his lips. "Uh huh... well, that explains how you knew that."

Alec just lifted a shoulder. "Pretty much. Anyway, his story was pretty simple. He was passing through the area, like he always did, but that particular time, he was met with a shifter that phased for the first time."

"That'll do it. Nothing on this planet is more lethal to a nomad than a fresh shifter."

Alec snorted. "Right?" Clearing his throat, "back to the point, his story got me thinking, and I remembered reading something." Then, he swung one arm out, smacking Demetri in the chest with the book in his hand. "I brought you something."

Looking at the object he had just been assaulted with, Demetri's lip curled. "That's my book."

Not taking his eyes off one of the female trainees, Alec cocked his head to the side. "I marked the page for you."

The corner of Demetri's lip lifted higher as he took his book, looking at the top of the pages, his eyes narrowing. "You barbarian. There are literally hundreds of ways to mark a page." Opening to the dog-eared page, he smoothed it out before closing the cover and popping Alec on the nose like a misbehaving puppy. "Bad, Alec. We don't bend the pages of Demetri's books."

Rubbing his nose with a glare, Alec huffed and recrossed his arms. "Just read it, Asshole."

Slowly turning his head, Demetri cocked a brow, and his voice took on a cynical tone. "Need I say again it's my book? I've read it." Holding the book out to Alec, he returned his attention to the trainees. "Put it back where you found it."

Taking the book back, Alec clicked his tongue. "It's worth considering, Dem."

Demetri nodded once. "I have considered it. However..." Grabbing the cuff of his sleeve, he pulled it up his forearm, showing off a paper thin scar that went completely around his arm amidst the numerous bite scars he had acquired over his life. "You have absolutely no idea how bad it hurts. If you did, you wouldn't be so quick to suggest it."

Eyes wide, Alec's snapped his attention back up to Demetri's face as the tracker fixed his sleeve. "How have I never noticed that before?"

Demetri just shrugged as he settled himself back against the wall. "Unlike you, I don't make it a point to run around half naked."

Before Alec could think better of it, he opened his mouth. "I know of a certain newborn that absolutely wouldn't mind."

Face smoothing out, Demetri rolled his eyes. "That is beside the point. What is the point, is it is painful enough to make a grown man cry." Sighing, he lowered his eyes. "Isabella is loosing too much venom to heal herself, and is yet another reason to add to the mounting list of why the death of her sire is such a colossal pain in the ass."

Crossing his arm yet again, Demetri's book held against his chest, Alec grunted. "You know, Demetri, Caius had that James guy looked into, and from what I'm hearing, dead or alive, there was no possibility this dude was ever going to have anything to do with her. If he didn't just abandon her during the three days of her change, there is a very high probably she would have suffered much worse than she did. How he stayed off our radar for almost two hundred years is beyond me."

"He didn't." Looking at down at the shorter vampire, Demetri cocked his head. "I guarantee we have cleaned up quite a few of his messes over the years. However, in order for there to be a complaining witness, there must be witnesses. He didn't leave any, so we never knew who it was." When Alec blinked at him, he shrugged. "You're not the only one that has heard what those reports entail, Alec; but apparently you are the only one they don't give a sense of deja vu to."

Tapping his thumb on the cover the book in his hold, Alec frowned. There had to be something someone could do for the infant. Demetri knew her better than anyone else did, but everyone knew she wasn't healing as she should. It had been a couple of weeks, so there should have been some attempt on her body's part to begin to refuse her jaw bone, but it remained completely severed. Sure, she was over producing venom to do that, and no matter what, on her own, it would take a decent amount of time, but the hole in her face stopped any progress that should have been made.

He genuinely liked the girl, as did the others of their clique, and they were all pretty determined to come up with something to help her. The problems wasn't coming up with ideas, though. They had plenty. The problem was her extremely overprotective guardian. If they couldn't get him to agree, it was back to the drawing board. The other problem was, said overprotective guardian refused to humor anything that would cause the infant pain, and without her sire, any relatively painless option was out the window.

When Alec fell silent, Demetri went back to half paying attention to the trainees. He would give Alec credit for finding the only answer he knew of to the issue, but the younger vampire had never had to be put back together with foreign venom before. It wasn't even close to the same thing as having to reattach something at a joint, which Alec has had to have done. Sure, that's not exactly pleasant, but it's not the same as having to fuse a bone back together. To Demetri's knowledge, Alec hadn't even been bitten hard enough for the other vampire's teeth to come into contact with bone. That is a completely different level of pain, and one that once you know, you are very conservative when it comes to doing it.

When Demetri lost his arm, he was still with his own sire. Two thousand years later, he still vividly remembered having to be pinned down, told not to move, and fight against every last molecule of his body to do just that when the searing, blinding pain shot up his arm as Amun forced his forearm back together.

He couldn't do it.

He moved.

Amun had to rebreak his arm, and do it again.

Foreign venom did the same thing to bone as it did to skin; it burned it. When he moved, it misaligned the bone of his forearm, but the bone still fused together. There wasn't much of a choice but to break it in the same spot and do it again. It took three tries before the bone in his arm was connected properly, and nearly six months before the arm itself sealed completely closed. He _knew_ how bad that shit hurt, and that was just his arm. In comparison to someone's face? He was positive the pain was little more than that of a bite.

Once again brought out of his mind when a body came to a sliding stop at his feet, Demetri made a face and shook his head. "Jesus Christ." Running his hand down his face, Demetri then scrubbed the palms of his hands together as the trainee crawled backwards away from him. "Alright, stop. Everyone... just. fucking. stop."

Pushing himself off the wall, he clasped his hands behind his back, his eyes roaming around the room. After a moment, he grinned, making everyone else gulp. "Since none of you seem to want to work today, why do we not have a little fun, instead?" Pointing one arm to the far right of the room, he directed Felix there, while having Jane take the left. Once they were in position, he addressed the room. "If your body is facing Felix, you are Team A. If you're facing Jane, you are Team B. This is a full fight simulation, and you will be expected to actually use the techniques you have been taught. Felix and Jane will not interfere, nor offer any aid whatsoever. Their only job is to keep things fair. If you lose your head, get off the floor. If you are caught cheating... well... I suggest you don't get caught. It is no different than lying, and you know perfectly well how I deal with liars. The team still standing, or has the most survivors in thirty minutes, wins. The prize is first feeding. The rules are simple. No actual decapitations. If you kill someone, you will be dealing with me. That's it. Don't kill anyone. This is a simulation, not an actual fight. A small piece of advice before you begin... Pay attention to who is on your team. If you take out your own team mate, it will still count as a kill, but you do not want to be the reason your team loses. I will make sure the others know, and you'll have twenty people very, very pissed off at you. Are we clear?"

There was a chorus of 'Aye Sir', and Demetri held his arms out to the sides. "Clear the floor and take your places." Eyes darting back and forth as the two teams separated, he gave them only enough time to get a general idea of who they were fighting with and who they were faced off against before he brought an arm down with a "begin".

*X*

On the catwalk that was above the training chamber, Bella stayed to the shadows as best she could as she looked over the safety rail and to the mass of bodies below her. She knew she wasn't really supposed to be there, but she was bored, and there was nothing else for her to do. Besides, technically, she wasn't really breaking Demetri's rule. Not only was he there, but so were the other three Elites, so she wasn't there 'alone'.

Then again, she knew she was supposed to stay with Dora and Sulpicia, so there was that.

Instead, for the last hour, she had been paying attention to the instructors, mimicking their actions and trying her best to learn the different techniques they were teaching the new guards. She didn't want to have to keep running when she was in trouble, or keep having to have someone else come to her rescue. She wanted to be able to protect herself, but it wasn't easy.

She was able to move her mutilated shoulder, but the range of motion was decreased, which made offensive maneuvers very, very difficult. It didn't stop her from trying, but quick movements hurt, and it had started getting harder and harder to keep up. One crossbody swing of her arm too many dropped her like a rock, and that's when she was discovered by Caius. It wasn't that she was found where she wasn't really supposed to be, it was _how_ she was found. She was sitting on the metal catwalk, gripping her shoulder, her head down, and a nearly continuous whine in her throat.

She could feel his eyes on her, but she didn't move from her position. She didn't want to see the look of pity in his eyes she saw in so many others. She didn't want Demetri to be right about her being as defenceless as she was. She had always been beneath the vampires she had been around, and she didn't want to be that anymore. She wanted to at least be able to defend herself, but the more she tried, the less she actually could.

Caius, who at this point was used to tracking down the newborn that just didn't seem to want to listen when told to stay somewhere, and had gotten very good at slipping her babysitter, stood five feet from her, his arms crossed. He was beginning to see why Demetri was so adamant about her not participating in a training session; she refused to abide by her bodily limitations, and the tracker was concerned about her doing more damage than was already done.

Looking over the railing when he heard Demetri call for the trainees to stop, he hummed in his throat. Taking a page from the Head Guard's playbook, Caius decided to take a different route to the same destination. Closing the distance between him and the newborn, he took a seat next to her, and watched through the grate as the trainees separated into their assigned groups. Cocking his head to the side, he clicked his tongue. "Have you considered asking him for a private session? Something that is a little more catered to you, perhaps?"

With a sniffle, Bella licked her lips as she shifted her eyes to the vampire next to her. "No, but you know as well as I do he wouldn't."

Caius snorted with a grin on his lips. "If Demetri holds the capability of telling you no, I would be very surprised. That aside, they are being taught to do a job." Waving his fingers down to the guard below, "you never use a fraction of the tactics they are learning. They are being trained to defend not just themselves, but everyone you see, and many more you don't. They must be ready for anything that comes their way, Stella, you know that."

She did. As a matter of fact, Felix and Alec never missed an opportunity to tell her all about past fights they had been in, and who they were against. They were actually pretty fun stories to listen to, if she were honest. They always got so animated, and it always made her smile. Still, her brow drew down as she turned her head to actually look at Caius. "Demetri said it was improvisation that gave the Guard their edge over others."

Caius didn't deny that. Instead, he nodded it head. "Yes, Stella, that's true. However, all improvability does is give them the ability to adjust their tactics as necessary. They still need to know how to fight properly because the reality is, by the time we are asked to intervene, or we are forced to do so, the time for talking is long since over, and we never actually know what we are walking into. All we have to go on is what we are told, and as you found when it came to Cullen calling us about you, we hardly ever receive all the pertinent information up front. Things are left out to make the guilty party look less so, or to make the opposition look more so. They have to be ready for any eventuality, and ask anyone you'd like, the Volturi does not lose. We do not lose solely because of Demetri and his insistence of perfection before real world experience. These hopeful guards will train for ten years before they are then put through simulations where their lives depend on their ability to win. Some simulations are a recreation of actual missions the guards have been on, but mostly, they are the brainchildren of Demetri, and in those simulations, trainees can, and very often do, die."

"They weed out the morons no one wants to fight with anyway."

Head snapping to the side, Bella actually gulped at the sight of Demetri standing a few feet from her, his arms crossed and a brow high on his forehead.

He wasn't even slightly surprised when he looked up and saw his charge sitting on the catwalk, but he was positive he left her with the mistresses, so he was curious. "What are you doing here, Neos?"

Rubbing her nose with the palm of her hand, Bella cleared her throat when it was clear Caius wasn't going to be coming to her rescue this time. "You don't understand. There is only so much gossiping and rumors I can stomach, Demetri, and it's all they did, and it was horrible. Their voices literally made my teeth hurt. I didn't do drama in high school, and I sure as hell don't have the patience for it now." Then she turned and looked at Caius. "I'm so sorry, but I actually visualized killing your mate... and Aro's... and Aro... twice."

While the admission gained her a raised brow, Caius said nothing to her as he looked up at Demetri. "That didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would."

Lips pressing together, Demetri nodded as he leaned a hip on the railing of the catwalk. "Same."

With a face that clearly showed her confusion, Bella looked back and forth between the two males. When neither of them felt the need to elaborate, she cleared her throat. "What... what didn't take as long as you thought?"

Pushing himself back up, Demetri closed the distance between him and Bella, taking up a position in front of her, but leaning back against the railing, crossing his ankles as he looked down at her. "For your Sire to show himself." His charge was clearly startled at the statement, so he sighed and continued as he squatted, lacing his fingers together between his knees. "We talked about this, Agapimenos, the day I found you in the woods. I told you then we take after our sire, just as humans take after their parents. You've been so malnourished though, your actions have been more instinctual than thoughtful. Now that you're becoming healthy, your rational mind is beginning to work as it always should have. However, because you're still in your infancy, your sire is still running the show."

She absolutely recalled what he was talking about, and she was just as horrified now as she was then. Her eyes went wide, and her voice grew in volume. "But... but he was..."

When she trailed off, Demetri licked his lips and nodded slowly. "So I've heard." Dipping his head to catch her eyes, he gave her a small smile when she gave him what he wanted. "It changes nothing of significance, Psihi Mou."

She had yet to figure out why he always introduced a new name for her when there was something far more important to focus on. It wasn't the first time he called her that, but she had yet to have the time to really look into with it meant. So far, she knew he called her Young One, Kitten, Butterfly, and Sweetheart, but she hadn't found a translation for this new name that made sense, and this wasn't really the time to ask.

Her annoyance was just as much over the name as it was over James. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and her voice went cold. "But it changes something."

Smile turning into a grin, Demetri chuckled in the back of his throat. "Of course it does. Everything changes something, Neos. In this case, it changes who you're allowed to be alone with."

When Bella grunted her distaste, Caius popped in with a question. "How long have you been having these kinds of thoughts?"

Shaking her head, Bella licked her lips as she looked down. "A couple of days." Then, she turned her eyes on him. "But I didn't think anything of it because I've thought about doing shit to the Cullens ever since I woke up, so it wasn't anything really new. It's just..." lowering her eyes again, "they've gotten worse and more involved and..." Pausing as her eyes started to itch, she swallowed hard and roughly wiped away the venom that still leaked from her lips and back of her mouth. "They've gone from just burning them alive to playing these psychological games to..." Covering her face with her hands, she sniffled. "You don't want to know what they are now, or how hard it was to walk away from Dora and Sulpicia without doing anything."

Demetri's eyes cut to Caius', who had the same look in his eyes. Not only was something going to have to be done for the injury, something was absolutely going to need to be done to curb these thoughts. Neither one of them had ever personally met the man, and second hand information was only so reliable. What was completely reliable, however, was the newborn in front of them, and both of them knew they could take her at her word.

If she was having difficulty walking away and leaving someone alive, something needed to be done about it. He had known this day would arrive, and he was more or less ready for it.

Licking his own lips, Demetri reached for her, crooking a finger under her chin, and lifted her head up so he could see her eyes. It never sat well in his stomach to see her in such a state, and just like any other time she cried, he did what he could to rectify her upset.

While Caius backed off in order to allow Demetri to deal with his charge, before he left the catwalk, he turned back and watched as Demetri's expression morphed in the face of his upset female and smiled, though said nothing. He wanted to see how he handled the girl and how it evolved in the last two weeks.

Demetri looked in Bella's eyes, his voice soft and soothing. "But... you didn't do anything, did you?" She was quick to shake her head, a tear filled 'no' slipping past her quivering lips, and Demetri's lips pulled into a smile as a result. "Then what are you upset about?" When she looked away, he cleared his throat, and tilted his head when she looked back. "We don't get to pick our Sire. We don't have a say in the one that makes us. You have an aggressive sire, Neos. Aggressive sires spawn aggressive newborns; it's just the way it is. While no one expected it to happen so soon, it was only a matter of time before that aggression showed itself. We just need to redirect it, that's all. As you continue to recover, it will become harder, and there are a lot of vampires here you cannot kill; the Mistresses being at the top of that list."

Shifting his position, he leaned forward, setting his forehead against her. "Psihi Mou, listen to me. You are still learning this life and it's my job to teach you." Pulling back only slightly, he sighed. "However, in order for me to do so, you have to let me know when shit gets out of hand like that. I can do a great many things, but fixing what I do not know is wrong isn't one of them. You must understand you will never get in trouble over something you cannot control, and this issue falls fully into that category. I told you, Neos, you aren't the first vampire I've dealt with that very little is known about their sire, and you are absolutely not the only one that has an asshole for a sire. Granted, yours does seem to be slightly more demented than the average asshole, this is still something that is fully within my ability to deal with, if not fix completely."

Changing his grip from under her chin to cupping her cheek, Demetri chose his words very carefully. "I know you are still learning to trust me, and I can appreciate that. But, if you don't give me a way to prove to you you can, things in the future are going to become very difficult."

Unable to help, Bella actually scoffed as she pulled her face free.. "I trust you."

To her surprise, he gave her a sharp nod as he dropped his hand over his thigh. "Yes, to feed you and protect you, because that's all you've given me to prove I'm willing to do for you. You will not be a newborn forever, Isabella. In just about eleven months, you will become accountable for your own actions. Also, in that amount of time, I have a ridiculous amount of things to teach you. If I do my job right, there won't be any huge fuck ups to follow your first birthday. However, in order for that to happen, you have to trust me enough to know you can come to me for anything, and clearly, we aren't there yet. Currently, being fed and protected are just about the only things one your age cares about, but I assure you there are a great many things that fall under that particular umbrella, and I'm willing to do every single one. It's up to you to let me, though, which is something else we've talked about."

Looking into his eyes, Bella sighed. She couldn't dispute that. They had; in the car on the way to the airport on the side of the road. He told her all of that, but it didn't make doing it any easier. She didn't exactly have the best past when it came to explaining her problems to someone, and it didn't lend her much in the way of how to bring something up. She also didn't know what she was thinking was a product of who changed her, so she honestly didn't know it was something that even needed brought up.

Finally, after nearly a full minute of thought, she nodded slowly with a small smile on her lips. "I'll try."

Grinning at her, Demetri winked. "That's my girl." Reaching for her, he grabbed her wrists, pulling her to her feet as he himself stood. Letting go of her wrists, he then looked down at her as his hands settled on Bella's hips. There was the same tenderness in his eyes she was used to seeing, and his voice was level. "Now, this is what we're going to do about your mounting aggression towards others. Once this session is over, I'm going have Alec..."

"Master Demetri!"

Closing his eyes, Demetri growled in the back of his throat. "Son of a bitch." Opening his eyes, he looked to the ceiling. "I swear to God..." He was almost positive he knew what it was about, and if he turned out to be right, someone was getting their ass kick. Keeping one hand on Bella, he let got with the other and turned, looking down at one of the lower female trainees, his voice was completely different than it was a moment ago. "What?"

Carla, who was in her second year of training, cringed back at the tone she knew pretty damn well at this point. Licking her lips as she turned her attention to the tracker above her head, she gulped at the look on his face. "There is a fight in the female barracks."

Demetri's eyes crinkled in the corner. "Of course there is. Let me guess... the blonde." At the nod of confirmation, he growled deep in his chest. "Alec, take over for Jane. Jane, break it up and bring me that fucking Cullen." With the corresponding 'Aye Sir's, Demetri turned back to Bella while shaking his head. "Unbelievable." Looking her back in the eyes, he sighed. "Stay here. Give me twenty minutes to deal with this, and then I'm going to come back and help you, alright?"

She barely nodded her agreement before he turned and started walking away, his good mood from a moment ago clearly gone. Bella, setting her hands on the railing, glanced down to the training floor, seeing Jane already gone. Clicking her tongue, she turned her head. "Demetri?"

Turning halfway back, Demetri lifted a brow. "Yes?" He pressed his lips together to smother a smirk as she made the attempt, three times, to pronounce Psihi, before he did it for her.

She nodded at him. "Yeah, that. What does it mean? I've figured out the other names, but so far, I haven't found a translation for that one that makes sense because I'm pretty sure you don't mean your psychi."

Crossing his arms, Demetri licked his lips, pulling the bottom one between his teeth as he made his way back to his charge. "Not everything has a direct translation, Neos. Common sense should have told you that much. Every language has words that mean more than one thing. Greek is no different, and Psihi is a word that doesn't translate well."

Wrapping one hand around the railing, he used his body to force her to turn, grabbing the railing with the other hand and trapping her in place. Bending at the waist, he lowered himself so he was eyelevel with her. Running his tongue along his teeth, he hummed. "One very important thing was taken the day I was bitten. Something so unbelievably precious to me I've been lost without it. I got it back the day I found you." Leaning into her, his eyes turned to liquid. "Psihi Mou means My Soul. You will never be my life. You are far more important to me than that. I won't give you my heart. It's a useless piece of stone. What you are, and what you hold of mine, gives you and you alone, the power to destroy me."

She wasn't sure if that was the sweetest thing she had ever heard, or if it was the most fucked up thing she had ever been told, but that didn't stop Bella from giggling like a sixteen year around her first crush. Stomach tied in knots as she looked into his bloody eyes, there was no missing the swoon in her voice. "Is that why I don't feel so empty anymore?"

Demetri clicked his tongue as he glanced up for a moment before flashing her a panty soaking smirk. "Let's go with yes."

Below them, both Felix and Alec looked up at the catwalk, neither one even slightly surprised to see Demetri wrap an arm around Bella's waist, hoisting her feet off the grate as his lips pressed hard against hers.

Felix crossed his arms, a smirk on his face as he called over to Alec. "Fucking called it. You owe me a thousand bucks." At Alec's glare, Felix's smirk grew. "Don't get pissy, just pay up."

Raising his arm, Alec just gave the Enforcer the finger.


	10. Chapter 10

Walking down the hall with Demetri was always an experience. It was amusing to her to watch as others would actually trip each other to get out of his way. It was so different than when she was by herself. No one was outright rude to her or anything, but they certainly didn't go out of their way to give her room to move. Only once was there an actual issue. She was just wondering around the floor, exploring while Demetri was on the phone, and a group was heading her direction. One of them refused to give her enough room to pass them, and he slammed his arm against her shoulder. She had her hood up, so he couldn't see who it was, and when he snapped at her to watch where the fuck she was going, she lifted her head enough to show off her face. If vampires actually had blood that was able to drain from their face, that dude's would have drained all the way out of his asshole.

She hadn't said a word. Her lip curled and her eyes crinkled in the corners.

 _It was a stand off. She was waiting for him to apologize, and she had no fucking idea what the hell he was waiting for. She hadn't done anything to him, and she wasn't going to act like she did. The three others that had been with him were not so subtly telling the guy to just say he was sorry, but all the guy could see was he just intentionally assaulted the newest member of the coven it was actually his job to protect._

 _Bella thought his face was hysterical._

 _The staring contest lasted until there was a rough clearing of a throat, and the two turned to look up the hall, one with a grin and the other with terrior, to Felix._

 _The Enforcer looked back and forth between the two vampires and cocked a brow. "Is there a problem here?"_

 _Still, Bella said nothing, just looked back at the one that ran into her with a cocked brow. This was his fault. She would haven't have said a word had he not, just gone on with her day. He was the one that brought this shit on himself._

 _When it was clear she was going to be keeping her mouth shut, the other vampire looked at the pissed off mountain of a guard. "No, Sir, Master Felix."_

 _Felix just grunted as he crossed his arms. "Sure as fuck looks like it." When he heard the newborn giggle, he looked at her. "What are you doing here? You were supposed to wait in the lounge."_

 _Bella shrugged. "Demetri said I could look around."_

 _Lifting a brow, Felix shook his head slowly. "No, Demetri did not. His exact words were... wait here, I'll be right back."_

 _Pursing her lips, Bella then grinned. "So I paraphrased."_

 _Felix's face smoothed out as he lifted a hand, crooking a finger at her. He watched as she looked back at the other male, smirked, then skipped down the hall to stand in front of him. He simply looked over her head. "Do not, ever, let me catch you around her again. Believe me when I say you will regret it."_

She had ended up telling him what happened as he led her back to the lounge she was left at, and he passed it on to Demetri when he returned from his phone call, but so far as Bella knew, nothing came from it. She answered the two questions Demetri asked, and told him it wasn't necessary to do anything because the guy clearly knew he fucked up. That happened on her fourth day in Italy, and she had never seen him again, so as far as she was concerned, it was handled.

It was really that point she had started to be left with a babysitter on a regular basis. She had been told it wasn't her, it was everyone else, but it sure didn't _feel_ like that. Then again, she was one hell of an escape artist, and slipped every single one, every single time. The only one she couldn't seem to get away from was Caius. That mother fucker had eyes in the back of his head or something, because he always seemed to know exactly what the hell she was up to, and never turned to look at her as he called her on it. He was also always able to find her when she snuck off, usually even before Demetri. She was beginning to wonder if that was more by design, because she had been caught in numerous places she had been expressly told not to go by herself, so by the time Demetri found her, she wasn't by herself. Caius though, would simply grin with a 'prove it' at the unimpressed look that would settle on the tracker's face when he called the king on his bullshit of her being with him the whole time.

Caius himself wasn't much out of his own teens when he was turned, maybe 20 at most, and had taken an actual liking to the newborn. The downside to this in Demetri's mind was that he was quickly becoming a partner in crime of sorts, and between the two of them, certainly kept him and the other Elites on their toes. When one was missing, they both likely were, and one of them was a ruler of the race. The twins were convinced it was only a matter of time before the two took something too far, and others agreed. However, unlike Bella, Demetri could find Caius without issue, and that usually meant he would also find his newborn charge. It didn't matter who the instigator was, though Demetri was more than positive it was Bella. Neither one could seem to help themselves. One was too young, and the other was bored as shit. However, one of them was one of the kings, so there was literally nothing they could do but be prepared to put out the evental fires those two were going to set.

Glancing down at his charge, he chuckled as she snickered when another pair of guards pressed themselves into a wall as they got closer. He never paid much mind to who might have been in his path as he traversed the halls, but he supposed there was humor to be found. It wasn't like they were walking down the center of the hall, so they could easily pass without the theatrics. He did ensure Bella stayed between him and the wall, so if protection became necessary little effort was needed. In the moment though, he merely flexed the arm she held to catch her attention and told her to hush.

For Bella, she just smiled at him. Prior to now, other than the day she arrived, there had never been any physical contact between them in front of any of the guards. Sure, there were times he would push her behind him when they came upon a fight or something similar, but usually, she was more concerned about hiding in her hood than she was anything else. This time, however, she was still overly flattered at what he said to her on the catwalk, that when he presented his arm to her, she took it with a quiet giggle.

In the time she was there, there had been plenty of times he vanished for a short while to deal with guard issue or another, but the is the first time he asked her to go with him. There was a such a dark gleam in his eyes, she couldn't tell him no even if she wanted to. She was far too curious what popped in his head, and she had actually wanted to see what it was he did, because so far, she had seen him do more watching than anything physical. She knew who was at their destination, but for whatever reason, she wasn't worried.

However...

If Bella felt inferior to Rosalie as a human, that didn't hold a candle to how she felt standing in her midst now. She never really thought she herself was ugly per-se, but prior to this moment, she had only ever gotten a fleeting look at the blonde bombshell since she obtained her new eyes, and there was a part of her that actually resented Demetri a little bit for suggesting she go with him to deal with the trouble making Cullen.

Never in her life was she more thankful for the creation of turtlenecks, and actually unfolded the one she was wearing, covering her face with one hand as she pulled her hood up with the other, glaring at the tracker from the corner of her eye with a growl in her throat.

Demetri glanced down at her when he felt her eyes, and rolled his own. He never did understand how anyone found this particular vampire attractive. Admittedly, he certainly held no fondness for blondes, but this one always looked as if she smelled something foul, and anything she might have had going for her in looks was gone the moment she opened her mouth.

Jane, who was leaning on the wall with her hands behind her back, narrowed her eyes slightly when Demetri and Bella walked in the room. There was something different there, she could almost smell it. Clicking her tongue, she resigned herself to asking her brother about it later.

Rosalie also noticed it, and scoffed. "Whore." Taking slightly off guard at volume of Bella's growl that was now directed at her, she still didn't take the warning for what it was and spoke again. "You could have at least broken up with Edward before you started fucking someone else."

Bella knew Rose hadn't been with anyone but Emmett, literally, ever in her life. But, that was still one more than she had, so the absolutely last thing Bella was, was a whore. She already wasn't exactly a fan of the blonde's, but for whatever reason, being accused of doing something she didn't do struck a nerve, and she lunged.

Ready for it, Demetri snatched Bella off the ground with one arm while looking at the Cullen who was looking at the pissed off newborn with slightly wider eyes. "Newborns, huh? So quick to lose their temper. So disinclined to put up with others. So fully capable of tearing you to shreds." Looking at the snarling infant in his hold, he hummed. "I did promise her, her owed pound of flesh." He then grinned at Rosalie. "Should I put her down?"

Flicking her eyes to Bella, Rosalie lightly cleared her throat as he returned her sights to Demetri. "You don't scare me."

Demetri's grin only widened. "Yes I do. You're eyes glow with it, and you scent is so covered in terror, it's making my nose itch. But that is beside the point. I'm not the one you should be currently worried about." Setting Bella on her feet, he held her back by wrapping his fingers around her hip bones, keeping her in place for the moment. "See, I don't have time for you. You're not that important. On a sliding scale, you fall somewhere between taking a shit, and taking a nap."

Letting go of Bella, he slid around her, holding up a finger to tell her to wait a moment before he turned back to Rosalie. Taking three steps to move closer, he laced his fingers together as he crouched and looked her in the eyes. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I was going to let you skate, because I have no desire to deal with you, or anyone else with the Surname Cullen for that matter. I have too much other shit to do on a day to day basis that I was going to leave you all alone, banished to the barracks for the entirety of your service, just so I didn't have to see you because you piss me off. All you had to do was behave in a way I forgot you were here, but you couldn't even accomplish that for ten damn minutes. So... because of you, your whole coven is going to suffer tremendously, and I am going to make sure they know who to blame for every scratch, every bite, and every slight inconvenience I can fucking think of."

Leaning back from the gleam in Demetri's eyes, Rosalie's lip curled. "That's not what you told us in the dungeon."

A cruel smirk settling on Demetri's lips as a brow rose. "I did, actually. I flat out said I do not want you on my guard. Out of everything that followed that statement, there were three things of importance. I told you the proper way to address me, and what would happen if you didn't. I told you to stay away from Isabella and what I would do to those that didn't. Lastly, I told you I don't run a catering service. That's it. For everything I said, that was all that really mattered." Pausing a moment, he hummed. "I suppose I did say I was going to make your life Hell, but honestly, what worse could I have done to you than take away your precious animal diet?"

Rose's eyes narrowed, and her voice got a little too preachy for Demetri. "Carlisle told us all about..."

He cut her off with a hard scoff and his lips pulled into a snarl. "Carlisle is a fucking idiot, and if he has you convinced a three month stay over a hundred years ago makes him an expert on someone else's coven, you're as big of an idiot as he is. You might think you know how this place works, but I promise you, you have no fucking idea. We rely on others around here, you twit. Do you have any idea how long it takes to train a guard to my standards? Twenty-five years from arrival to graduation. Why in God's name would I put so much effort into seven vampires that will not be around long enough to receive their first assignment? Why the Hell would I waste so much energy on anyone I don't trust? The fact of the matter is, you weren't even going to be dealing with me as long as you did as you were told by the ones that oversee the barracks. You couldn't manage that, and as a result of your inherent idiocy, you have just fucked every single person you care about for two very specific reasons. And do you want to know what those are?"

There comes a point when keeping your mouth shut is literally the smartest thing you can do. There are some questions that should go unanswered. Rosalie didn't possess the ability to realize this was one of those times. "Because you're a prick?"

Cocking his head, Demetri ran his tongue along his bottom lip. "Okay... three reasons, then. That would be the first. The second is, I told you you would follow the commands of your superiors, or you would then follow mine. The biggest, however, is I told you I wasn't the one you needed to worry about." Pointing his thumb over his shoulder to his newborn charge, his eyes sparked with a malicious glee as Rosalie make a soundless gulp at the clear implication, but he went ahead and elaborated. "My orders come from her."

Having reached the point she felt she had nothing left to lose anymore, Rosalie growled low, her lips pulling slightly back from her teeth as she tried to put as much gusto into her voice as she could. "My mate is going to kill you."

"He is certainly welcome to try. But..." Never, in her life, had Rose ever heard such a demonic sounding noise as she did the moment Demetri chuckled. It was deep, low, and carried ice. He leaned toward her, his eyes pits of endless darkness as his voice caressed her skin like a lover's touch. "Not before mine destroys you."

It absolutely did not matter how little he liked them, or how much they pissed him off, Demetri did not put his hands on a female in a violent manner. Harming a female was beneath him, but that was certainly not the case when it came to the infant behind him. He did little more than wink at the Cullen before him before she vanished from his sights, the sound of his little charge's growl only just reaching his ear.

Standing from his crouch, he hummed in his throat as he watched Bella, seeing just how tightly wound she had become over the passing days. He certainly had his work cut out for him when it came to sorting out her less than stellar abilities. It was little more than a cat fight, and that was certainly something he couldn't have.

It was as he was reaching into his jacket for his cigarettes he paused, plucking a piece of blonde hair from the onyx fabric. Blowing it from his skin, he continued with what he was doing, a small chuckle slipping past his lips at the sounds from his newborn. It was as he was putting his lighter away that Jane came to stand with him, her arms crossed behind her back. He glanced down at her, but didn't say anything.

It didn't matter, because she did. "What do you want me to do?"

Demetri shook his head, puffing the smoke from his nose. "Nothing. Something was brought to my attention a half hour ago and, believe me, you do not want take Isabella's toy away from her right now."

Brows drawn and a frown on her lips, Jane swallowed hard. 'You're not concerned she'll hurt herself?"

Shaking his head as he placed his cigarette between his lips, Demetri snorted. "Were this an actual fight I would be, but since it's not, not at all." Removing the smoke, he cocked his head. "She's healthy now, and I need to learn her actual limitations, not just the assumed ones. She might not be able to bite, but if you ask Felix, that has no baring on how hard she can hit, or..." shifting his eyes to his covenmate, "how easily she can remove a body part."

It was almost like magic. The moment that phrase was given life, Demetri's hand shot up, snagging an ear out of midair that was aimed for his face. Tossing it in the air, he caught it in a better grip and looked at it, a thoughtful expression on his features as he tossed the appendage onto the floor. "Grace is certainly going to have a puzzle on her hands, isn't she?"

Both guards watched as the newest Voltalian landed a solid fist into the cheek bone of the Cullen, and when Demetri saw said Cullen's hand going for Bella's hair, Demetri grunted as he took a hit. "End it."

Without delay, Rosalie started screaming as Jane's gift took effect.

Bella, having not seen Jane use her power before, blinked as she backed away from what appeared to be a possessed body. Wide eyed, she watched as Rosalie's body flopped around like a fish out of water, unable to figure out what the fuck her problem was. All she had done was break some fingers, removed an ear, and ripped out some hair. In comparison to having your face all but ripped off by a wolf, that didn't seem nearly as bad to her. Lip curling in the corner, Bella scoffed. "God, you're a bitch."

Demetri finished his cigarette, dropping the butt, and twisted it beneath his toes as Jane cut off her gift. Completely ignoring the vampire on the floor as she curled into a ball, bringing her stump of a hand to where her ear used to be, he made his way to Bella, extending a hand to her. When she took it, he pulled her to her feet and then into his arms. Lacing his fingers behind her back, he looked down at her with a smile. "Feel better, Neos?" When all she did was grunt, he hummed. "Seems I have some work to do, then. Why don't we get you fed, and then we'll get you feeling better."


	11. Chapter 11

"Very good, Gatáki. This time, I want you to try to not look at Alec's feet. You giving yourself every time you do."

Letting out a breath through puckered lips, Bella nodded and took back up the stance she was taught as Alec got back to his feet.

For the last two hours, she, Demetri, and Alec had been out in the gardens, out of the way of the training guards, and out of the view of prying eyes. She wasn't being taught how to fight in so many words, but she was learning some basic techniques that took a decent amount of effort to pull off, which was intended to wear her out. The problem came from her inability to actually trust, and that didn't just go for the two males. Bella had a very long list of reasons to believe vampires could actually be hurt, and she was actually pretty worried she would fuck up and she would end up lose her arm.

She had overheard some things during a half conversation between Demetri and Alec, but the former shut it down pretty quick, so she wasn't really sure what it everything entailed, but she _knows_ she heard Demetri say to be careful not to twist a certain way because he wasn't sure Bella's arm could actually be reattached.

As a result, she kept dropping her shoulder, or glancing at Alec's foot to know which way he was planning to go, so she could make sure she didn't. It defeated the purpose of hand to hand combat when the 'hand to hand' part was sorely lacking, but she was scared, and she thought that was pretty understandable fear. She was making enough changes to show she was trying, though, and both males noticed.

Alec, once he was on his feet, popped his elbow back into place, and sighed. "Stella." When she looked at him, he gave her a small smile. "I know well enough what I'm doing that I'm not going to hurt you. You, though, are strong enough to do serious damage if you don't trust me just a little bit."

Unable to help it, Bella frowned as she crossed her arms. "I'm sorry. It's just... I heard what Demetri said about my arm, and I got scared."

Grinning at her, Alec dropped into his crouch. "And now that I know what the issue is, we can have some fun."

She didn't find all that much fun about the situation to that point, but after another ten minutes, she was trying very hard not laugh at Alec's overdramatics as she listened to what Demetri was telling her to do from a few feet away. He was crouched down, his fingertips on the ground, paying closer attention to her than she had seen him pay to anyone in the training chambers, calling out corrections as she made the mistake, praising her when she did something right, also making sure she knew not just when she did something wrong, but what it was.

Alec was actually pretty shocked at the level of patience Demetri was showing to the girl. Yes, he was perfectly aware what the tracker's intentions were with her, but in the past, he had always been much harder on the female that held his attention, because holding the attention of anyone in the coven made that vampire a target for others. There were limited spots available for others, and the only way to get one was to become the mate of someone that was already a member.

Everyone but probably Bella herself knew she didn't get her place as a Voltalian because she was adopted by Demetri. She got it because by the time they returned to Volterra, the attraction was already there, and by the time Demetri took her from the throne room, the intent was clear as day as well. Never once had Demetri gone after someone like that over a female, and certainly not one of the kings. The tracker never told anyone what happened in the woods, or what drove his actions when he did what he did, and it really didn't matter. Alec thought it was amazing, and he was truly happy for Demetri.

It took her a half hour, but when she finally pulled off a successful hip toss, after countless failed attempts, there was complete silence from every direction as Alec slid on his shoulder blades across the ground. The small session had caught the attention of a group of guards returning from their patrol of the city, and little by little, more and more appeared to watch as the newborn took part in the games of the Elites. It was actually a pretty rare treat they got to see the familiar bonds between the members of the coven, so when a show presented itself, it was a spectacle they didn't want to miss.

The silence was shattered by a high pitched, octave changing whistle when Alec stopped ten feet from his point of impact. Not expecting it, Bella jumped, but when she looked to see where it came from, her eyes went wide, her lips parting, as she slowly turned, taking in the ring that had formed around her, Demetri and Alec. It wasn't solid, but there was a distinct surrounding of bodies that lined the wall of the gardens, or others watching from balconies. As her eyes landed on each one, they would pause in their applause and bow their head to her before they resumed their clapping.

To her absolute, utter shock, even Aro had been present, drawn to investigate very excited voices, and decided to stay and watch when Caius and Marcus appeared next to him. It was grudgingly, but he had to admit she earned her win over Alec. There were many, that were many times her age, that couldn't get him to his back, and though it was clear that was what she was being taught to do, the young man hadn't made it easy for her.

When Bella finally found herself facing Demetri, who was also clapping for her, she shifted her eyes from side to side as she made her way over to him, her voice low and face worried. "What is going on?"

A grin appeared on Demetri's face as he too gave the garden a once over. Tilting his head to the side as he returned his sights to his charge, he clicked his tongue. "You have just earned the respect of your guard..." It was then he stopped clapping, his eyes closing as he bowed in a much more regal manner than the others. "Mistress."

Bella's eyes went wider at the action, her hand covering her mouth as she once again looked around her. "Oh, God."

When Demetri reopened his eyes, he looked at Bella through his lashes, a smirk pulling at his lips that she had seen enough times over the last few weeks to know he was about to do something, but she wasn't able to move back fast enough to prevent it. He shot toward her, and the squeal was barely given life before she found herself hoisted off the ground, turned, and perched on one of Demetri's shoulders. She wasn't even fully settled before there was an almost barked cheer done in unison from the surrounding bodies.

Alec, who had gotten to his feet, had a warm smile on his face as he made his way back to Bella and Demetri. Dusting the grass and dirt from his jacket, he chuckled. "It's not so bad once you get used to the Pomp and Circumstance that goes with titles around here." Alec out right laughed at the wrinkled nose and groan from the infant on Demetri's shoulder. "If you think what's about to happen is bad, just wait until you and Demetri here are mated."

Glancing up at his female, Demetri curled his tongue as he watch her look anywhere but an actual person. While that was absolutely his intention, and one he had made pretty clear to her, it was the first time it was said so directly, and he was curious how she would react to hearing it from someone else. While she wouldn't look at him, she was doing her best to hide a smile at the statement by pressing her lips together. He could see it in her eyes though, in the way they seemed to shine.

She was looking forward to it.

A grin settled on his lips as he used his free hand to shove Alec in the shoulder, a gleeful spark in his eyes. "Just want until Felix finds out you were thrown around like a sack of shit by an infant."

With a snort, Alec crossed his arms as he righted himself. "I'm not worried about Felix."

Demetri crossed his arms over Bella's shins, his head tilting and settling in the curve of her hip. "Oh?"

Face pinching, Alec shook his head. "Nah. It wasn't just any infant," pointing to Bella, "it was that one, and even he would have eaten dirt for her. So, he can try, but if he wants to be a dick, I'll kick him so hard in his, he'll sing soprano for a month."

Setting her hand on the back of Demetri's neck, Bella looked back and forth between him and Alec, her brows slightly creased as she returned to the conversation. "Isn't that like... the biggest no-no ever between guys? Bro code, or whatever it's called, to not kick another dude in the balls?"

To her surprise, both of them snorted hard at the questions, though it was Demetri that answered as he looked up at her. "When you deal with someone as big as he is, there is no such thing as off-limits. Sometimes, it's the only way to stop him."

There was a snicker from Alec as he nodded his head. "Other times, it's just really funny. You do know what they said is true, right?" When her response was a lifted shoulder, he grinned. "The bigger they are, the more shit they break on the way down."

Across the garden, there was a set of red eyes that watched very closely as the three Voltalians headed back toward the palace entrance, most specifically, the infant still situation on Demetri's shoulder. She was the reason he was there, and as the three vampires vanished inside, those eyes narrowed, plans flashing through the liquid depths. He would simply need to bide his time until his opportunity presented itself.

*X*

She didn't know if vampires could get migraines, but Bella was well on her way to having one. Fingertips pressed to her temples, she sat in the overly posh and done up 'Queen's Room', once again stuck with Dora and Sulpicia as they gushed on and on about some fucking thing or another. She knew she promised Demetri she could last the ninety minutes he would be gone, but it had only been sixty, and if she had to hear one more fucking rumor about who was fucking who, she was gonna rip something, or someone, apart.

Seriously... how could the two find so much interest in someone else's sex life? They never talked about theirs; oh no, that would be improper. A Lady doesn't kiss and tell, blah blah blah. Bullshit. She knew more about Dora's bedroom antics than she ever cared to know, because Caius was a dog, and he thought Bella's reactions were hysterical. It came in the guise of how to please a male vampire, but really, Bella was positive Caius was just a pervert.

Since she had her eyes closed, she hadn't noticed when the other two females looked at her, but her head shot up and her eyes opened with a snap when Sulpicia tapped her on the knee. "Huh? What?"

With a smile and giggle, Sulpicia repeated herself. "What do you think about those colors for your ball?"

Well, she certainly had Bella's attention now. Blinking, she slowly lowered her hands, both brows raising to her bangs. "I'm sorry, my what?" There was no way she heard that right.

Dora leaned back into her seat, tapping her hand with her fan. "Your ball." At the horrified expression she received, she sighed. "Do you have any idea how long it's been since someone joined the coven and not just the guard? A millenia. Of course there is going to be a party for you. You're a Voltalian now, Bella, and Voltalians hold balls."

Unable to help it, Bella snorted so hard at the statement she actually choked. She was positive it wasn't meant to sound like it did, but between Felix, Alec, and Caius, her mind was basically ruined. Banging on her chest with a closed fist, she hacked on the venom that was stuck in her throat, waving the other back and forth like she was trying to bat a fly. Her voice was also choked as she gagged. "No... God no. There isn't going to be a ball."

The two queens glanced at each other, matching grins on their face before Sulpicia turned back to Bella. "Well, of course there is. Why do you think it took four cars to pick people up from the airport? There are the dress designers, seamstresses, party planner, personal shoppers, decorators, cleaners for the ballroom. This is a huge event, and there are sure to be hundreds in attendance. Besides..." leveling the infant with a look, she titled her head to the side. "The party is just as much for Demetri as it is for you."

Something in the way that was said, and the way Sulpicia's eyes seemed to dance made Bella's lip curl. "Does he know that?"

Sighing, Sulpicia leaned back into the mound of pillows behind her, playing with her own hand fan. "He will be by the time he returns." There was a clear look of questioning attitude directed at her, which was certainly not something she was used to receiving. It had been a very long time since her words were challenged, and she wasn't really sure how to respond for a moment. But, she did, and it was with an offhand tone. "When you throw as many parties as we have, you learn men tend to lose focus during the planning process. So, instead of continually fixing their mistakes, or keeping them on task, it's both easier and better for all involved to just shoo them away with a date and time to show up."

A narrowing of her eyes, Bella ran the tip of her tongue along the back of her teeth before she tsked. "He doesn't know anything about this at all, does he?" When both females shrugged, she stood. "Well, I'm gonna go. But before I do, I think you should know the people of Hell will enjoy a glass of ice water before I show up to any fucking party." Before she was fully out the door, she heard one of the call 'but it's for you', to which Bella responded as she slammed the door behind her. "Don't care."

Leaning against the doors to her back, Bella dropped her face into her hands with a groan. She was really tired of decisions being made for her. It was like... first her every movement was monitored when she was a human, and being forced to do things she didn't really care to do. It started out with humans telling her not to talk to the Cullens, which admittedly was actually probably the best advice she had never listened to. Then it was Edward telling her which humans she could or couldn't talk to, based solely on those human's private thoughts. If he had any idea what kind of shit went through her mind, he certainly wouldn't have come back from Alaska.

Then, it was someone else's decision that made her a vampire. Sure, she might have wanted to be one, but she certainly didn't want to be used as a pawn in a game. She didn't want to be chased literally across the country. She did understand that, generally speaking, nobody got to pick their sire, but also generally speaking, you don't know vampires exist prior to becoming one. Then, there was little fact she had the sire she had because Edward was an idiot and challenged someone he didn't know, and pissed off a fucking psycho.

It was also someone else's decision that led her to having no use of her jaw. It was someone else's decision on where she lived, how she lived, where she was allowed to go, and what she was allowed to do. She wasn't so much angry over some of the latter things. She understood why those rules were in place, and honestly, pretty much anywhere beat the woods as far as somewhere to live. She didn't like Northern Washington when she was human, and shockingly, it was far less hospitable to a vampire than it was to humanity. As far as the restriction of her movements, there were a lot of bodies, and she didn't get along with hardly everyone currently.

Other than that, this ball bullshit was a blindside she certainly didn't need. Why they hell does everything that happens around this place come across as someone doing you a favor? A ball, party, whatever, in her honor, meant center of attention, and the last thing she wanted was to spend several hours in the presence of people gawking at her appearance. It was degrading, and if there was a God, she would be able to figure out a way so it wouldn't happen.

Her steps had been pretty aimless since she knew this part of the palace, so she hadn't been watching where she was going. She was perfectly able to get from that loung to the Elite wing without looking up, and all she was trying to really do was get to her room and sulk while she came to terms with the fact she was going to have to not only stomach being the center of attention, but that she would also be showing the entirety of this bullshit ball she had no idea how to dance. The part of that she was going to have to stomach was that, because of that, she was likely going to make Demetri look like an idiot.

So caught up in her thoughts, she hadn't been paying all that much attention to her surroundings. She never had to before, so it didn't cross her mind she would have to now. It wasn't until she found herself snatched from the main hallway into a side corridor she snapped to attention. Honestly, it wasn't really something that was abnormal. Demetri had done it a handful of times. When it came to the more physical aspect of their growing relationship, he was actually quite private with it. That's not to say he didn't make very public shows of his intentions, but usually, he didn't care for the answering attention. Their time together was also beginning to get interrupted as she got more settled and comfortable, so they had more stolen moments during the day then they had actual time together other than when she ate.

She hadn't heard he returned, so she was surprised enough at the action to not react right away. It was what happened after her back was slammed into the wall that finally brought her back fully to her body. Demetri didn't waste his time with her, not knowing how much or little he would have in that particular moment. When he had her alone, he kissed her. When she realized there was a hand over her mouth instead of a pair of lips, her eyes widened and snapped up to the very odd looking orange colored ones looking into her own.

She started to struggle when Edward's dipped down, a shudder dancing down every vertebrae of her spine when his nose made contact with her neck. The way he had her pinned, his whole body's weight pressed against her and his leg between her thighs, she couldn't get the angle needed to push him off. If her heart worked, it would be beating in her throat. She had been scared before, but never has she been awashed with such a level of terror as she was when she heard a moan in her ear.

Kicking up the struggle, Bella did the only thing she could think of. With his leg between hers, that put one of hers was between Edward's, and in an act of desperation when she felt his teeth scrape her shoulder and heard a mumbled 'mine', she drove her knee up as high and as hard as she could. It didn't have the full effect she was going for, but it did get him to let her go, and he did drop to his knees.

She hadn't been given a lot of room to get past him, and when she tried, his hand shot out, snagging her ankle and taking her to the ground as well. Hitting hard, she rolled to the side, looking down her body, locking her eyes on Edward's now black ones. They had a wild look, and with a hard breath, she used the foot he wasn't holding to kick him in the face.

 _That_ got her loose, and she scrambled to her feet. Not looking behind her, she took off, but it wasn't long before she heard the sounds of following footfalls. When she heard the growled 'get back here', she whimpered, cursing the fact there wasn't any guards on this floor. There had never been a reason because the only thing on it was a handful of empty rooms, the Master's wing and the Elite wing, both of which had additional security measures in place to keep others out; not to mention, during the day, the only people _on_ the floor were Athenodora and Sulpicia, who no one was stupid enough to try anything with.

Recalling just how fast she had discovered Edward was during that ill fated baseball game, she tried to run faster. She wasn't sure she was faster than he was, but she was actually the one at the disadvantage because she only had one place to go, and she had to get past the lock to get there. Turned out, that wasn't the hard part. When she reached the double doors of the Elite Wing, she went to press on the panel to open it, but ended up putting her hand through it. She succeeded in getting the door to unlock, but with the electric lock now broken, she had no way to keep the door closed, but she was gonna try. She only had to keep the doors between them for another few minutes and one of the Elites would show up.

She was very quickly learning why the guards were taught not to make plans.

She made one, and it absolutely did not work.

She did get the door closed, but it didn't stay that way.

Edward slammed into it with so hard, she was sent flying backwards with so much force, she only hit the ground once, on the back of her head. The back of her stone head broke one of the stone tiles, and she found out it wasn't a fluke when she was half knocked out back in Washington when she tripped herself on a tree root.

Because of the way she landed, her body folded over itself, and she went tumbling across the floor. She decided then and there it was Edward's fault she was so damn clumsy and prone to nasty falls as a human when, because of him, she went through the nearly floor to ceiling window at the end of the hall. Because of how hard she hit her head, she didn't have the state of mind to catch herself, and it was a _long way down._ She also wasn't sure which way was up. Her eyes were glossy, the world was spinning, and the commotion from her rather abrupt appearance was fuzzy at best.

The guards in the garden stood shocked in place, hesitating for a moment too long to to be of any use... all but one.

Darting from the place he had been hanging out for the last two days, Peter hurtled a bush and ras as fast as he could, dropping to a knee and digging his other heel in front of him into the pavement to slow himself down, the hood over his head falling off, getting himself under the falling female just in time to catch her before she had a rather nasty landing, with a "gotcha."

Wrapping his fingers around her clawed up shoulder, he squeezed hard enough to stop the jarring of the sudden stop from a six story fall, effectively saving it from being severed completely by gravity.

Still not fully there, Bella looked up at who caught her, but when she didn't recognize him, she ripped herself out of his arms, rolling away and onto her heels and palms, at just about the same time the dozen or so actual guards descended on the pair.

It wasn't so much a problem _she_ didn't know who he was. There were plenty of guards she hadn't seen before, so seeing a new face wasn't exactly uncommon for her. When the guards, who knew everyone by at least sight, also didn't know who he was, was when shit hit the fan.

There were four guards between them, and Bella watched through their legs as the man before her put his hands up, following the very direct orders given to him to get to his feet. Her eyes were locked on his, and there was something in the red depths that struck her as off. He wasn't afraid. There wasn't an ounce of fear in his eyes. There was a healthy dose of triumph, but nothing to indicate he was even slightly worried about what was about to happen to him.

Lurching forward to her knees, she called for the guards that were taking him away to wait, but she found herself held back by two of the higher ranking members of the guard; Bradley and Philip, if she recalled right. They also wouldn't let her go until they were certain the imposter was at least one floor down, and when they released her, Bella was off again.

She knew the general location of the dungeon, but that wasn't where she was going. She was on a mission, and that was to prevent one very bad thing from happening. Like hell she was going to let Edward get away with his actions, and without Demetri being there, Caius was the next best thing.

Not having a single shit to give if they were busy, Bella slammed herself into the doors to the throne room, knowing she would find Caius, and that at least he would listen to her. Turned out they were exceptionally busy, but that didn't stop her from interrupting and going straight to Caius.

Still somewhat dizzy from hitting her head, she tried to explain what just happened, causing one hell of a scene that had caught both Marcus and Aro's attentions. All three listened, but with the combination of her not being able to fully open her mouth, the overproduction of venom, and her upset, none of the three could understand a word she said, though all three did actually try. Hell, the man on his knees in the middle of the room even tried to figure out what the infant was going on about. Clearly there was something very wrong, and if she was ballsy enough to interrupt them, it was something they needed to know.

Standing from his throne, Caius set his hands on Bella's shoulders, slouching enough to look her in the eyes. "You need to settle, Stella. I cannot understand you."

Before she was able to try again, another voice sounded at the doors, catching everyone's attention. "Masters, an imposter was found amongst the guard. He's in detainment, and the Elites have returned."

Caius, nodding to the guard, looked at the infant with a smile. "See now? Demetri will have this all sorted out in no time, and everything will be fine."

Bella's stomach dropped right out of her asshole. "Oh... oh no."

Pulling herself free of Caius' hold, she tore off back across the room, skidding to a stop, barely avoiding slamming into the wall, and pushing herself off of it in the direction she wanted to go. She had to cut him, or she knew something really bad was about to happen to someone who didn't deserve it.

She barely made it to the end of that hall before she heard a 'what' that was loud enough to echo around the halls. Once again sliding to a stop, she was only able to catch a flash of the tracker before he vanished before her eyes. She was closer to the entry to the catacombs, but he was faster. There was zero chance she was going to catch him, but that didn't stop her from going after him.

There had been so little time between the gardens and Demetri's return, Carlos had only gotten Peter into a cell, but not gotten the door closed before the Dungeon Master found himself bouncing off the cell that held Jasper and the sound of stone on stone rang out and bounced off the walls.

"Demetri!"

Darting into the cell, she slipped between her guardian and the body of the man that caught her. Glaring at the former, she put her hands on his chest and shoved him back as hard as she could. "What is the matter with you?" Pointing a finger at him, she snapped as he opened his mouth. "And I don't want to hear shit about him pretending to be a guard. You're the one always calling them morons, so are you really all that surprised someone actually outsmarted them?"

With a growl and narrowed eyes, Demetri crossed his arms. "No."

Crossing her own arm, Bella cocked a brow. "Besides, you should be thanking him." When she saw both of Demetri's brows shoot up to his hairline, she licked her lips. "He saved me, Demetri. He caught me when I went through a window, which probably saved my arm, and he didn't have to."

Eyes shifting to the vampire on the cell floor, Demetri watched as the male popped his jaw back into place before returning his eyes to his charge. "You are going to want to start from the beginning if you wish to save his life, Neos."

So, she did. She started from the moment he left, leaving nothing, including her irritation over the bullshit ball, out of her explanation. To her surprise, he stayed for the whole thing, his eyes flashing when she told him the reason for the broken security panel and window, were because she had been running from Edward. The nose that came from him when she told him what led to her running from him had her super glad she couldn't piss herself anymore.

By the time she was done, there was a slight waver to her voice, because the more she spoke, the less person-like Demetri looked and the more demonic his features became.

When there was nothing from her for a moment, Demetri backed out of the cell, crooking a finger at Isabella, and slamming the door closed once she was out. Glancing at Peter from the corner of his eye, he growled again. "I will deal with you later." Returning his eyes to Bella, he sighed through his nose. "Go your chambers and wait for me there."

He didn't say anything else, just sidestepped her and when she turned and called to him, he didn't turn back. Bella, sighing herself, nodded to Carlos when he asked if she was able to find her way back to the main level by herself, but she was stopped before she made it to the hall.

"Little Darlin'."

Turning to look over her shoulder, Bella looked back to the vampire that saved her, Peter if she heard right, her brows creased. "Yeah?"

Peter slipped his hand through the bars of his cell, crooking a finger at her, and giving the ol' Whitlock salute to Carlos when he told him to leave the girl alone. He literally risked his life to save hers and he was going to do what he came to do; he didn't give a fuck.

He waited until she was back in front of his cell before he opened his hand, picking up a piece of stone that sat innocently in his palm, holding it up for her inspection between his thumb and middle finger. Cocking his head to the side when he heard her gasp, he grinned slightly. "You know what that is, don'tcha, Youngen?"

Hands coming up to her face, Bella covered her nose and mouth as her eyes began to itch. For a long moment, she just looked at what was being held to her. After a time, with a trembling voice, she all but whimpered. "James."

Grin changing to a small smile, Peter clicked his tongue. "Amazin' how little we need ta recognize our sire, ain't it?" He watched with understanding eyes as Bella's hands dropped to her lips, but when it was clear she wasn't going to be able to get the words out, he hummed. "I met that sumbitch 'bout thirty years back. Ain't gonna say much on it. He put his hands on my ol' lady, so I put my hands on him. Found this when I was cleanin' my truck few weeks later. Didn't wanna keep it, but somethin' told me I was gonna need it." When the infant continued to stare at the last piece of her sire, Peter dropped it into his palm, and held it out to her. "G'on now. Ya know ya want to."

Jasper, Alice, and Emmett watched as Bella picked up the broken piece of vampire skin like it was the most precious thing in the word. Jasper didn't have the best view because he was right behind her, but Alice and Emmett did, and they both turned away from the look of utter devastation on her face.

Cupping the piece of James in her hands, Bella swallowed hard and sniffled. "I hate that I miss him." Keeping her head down, she flicked her eyes to Peter's. "I don't want to."

Slowly, Peter nodded, his own eyes going soft. "You won't always. The older ya get, the less you gonna care he gone. It hurts now cause you a baby, and babies need they sire."

Rubbing the back of her jaw on her shoulder, Bella cleared her throat. "Demetri told me that." Then she frowned. "Sorry I didn't stop him from hitting you, by the way. He's faster than I am."

With a shit eating grin, Peter laced his fingers together outside his cell door, kicking a booted foot up on his toes. "Ain't gonna lie, Little Lady; that fella a yours got one helluva right hook." Then he shrugged. "But he ain't the first fella to ever go off halfcocked over a female. He can't help it, though. See, us males don't take too kindly ta other males touchin' our lady. Don't much matter the reason why, either."

Chuckling at the raised brow he got from the newborn, Peter cocked his head to the side. "Let me tell ya a story. Now, I love my lady dearly, but Char... she got this tendency ta be a bit ditzy at times. She been a vampire for a while, but her navigational skills lack somethin' awful. Few years back, we moved ta a place she ain't ever been, and while she was out doin' whateva the hell she she was doin', she got herself lost. Knew it was gonna happen, so I just go look for her. When I found her, she wasn't doin' nothin' wrong, just askin' directions back ta her car. The guy, though, touched her and it took every ounce a mind I had not ta knock that human's head clean off his shoulders. Char was upset cause she don't like not knowin' where she is. Comes from where we was raised, and not knowin' where you at usually gotcha killed. Rationally, I knew all the guy was trin' ta do was calm her down, but I broke his jaw in three damn places cause ya don't touch a fella vampire's lady. Ya just don't."

Brows creasing, Bella shook her head. "But you were only trying to help me."

Peter shrugged. "That's all that human was tryin' ta do. Didn't care. Charlotte mine, and ain't no other fella gonna touch what's mine. I'll fuckin' kill 'em and not. give. a. fuck. It's the way we built, Little Darlin'. When it comes to our lady, we a possessive bunch and we don't share... ever. You can do whatever the fuck ya want to anythin' else we got, but fuck with her, you just plan fucked."

Rubbing her fingertips along the piece of vampire flesh in her hand, Bella bit into her lip as she jutted out a hip. "If James touched Charlotte, how was he alive to bite me?"

At the question, Peter actually growled. "Cause just like your fella, I don't hit females if I can help it. One got between us, so I backed off. She gathered him up and they took off. I had Char ta tend to, so I didn't go after 'em. Had I seen 'em again, though, I'da killed 'em both just for shits and giggles."

Bella wasn't able to do much more than nod. She couldn't speak for Peter, but in Demetri's case, there was always someone else present that could deal with a female, so he didn't usually have to. He had told her that wasn't to say he wouldn't if he was pushed to a certain point or if he was defending himself, but if there was another way to handle a situation involving a girl, he would exhaust all other avenues first. He knew he was physically superior to females, so it wouldn't be a fair fight. He also didn't tolerate any of the male guards attempting to overpower a female. That shit was handled on the spot, and she had personally seen him kill three that tried. It wasn't that he thought females were incapable of defending themselves, he just didn't think they should have to defend themselves against a male they had very little chance of beating. She assumed it came from his upbringing as a human since he was at least in his early 20s when he was bitten, so whatever morals he was raised with were pounded in his skull long enough for them to stick.

Scratching at the more graze like slashes on her neck, Bella recrossed her arms. "I don't understand something." When Peter waved a hand to her, she rocked herself back on her heals. "You're Peter Whitlock, right?" Like a smart ass, Peter dipped his head in a shallow bow with a grin, but said nothing, so Bella did. "The day I arrived here, Demetri and Alec were talking about you. Alec said you were wanted for war crimes, but Demetri had said he wasn't even convinced you were real; just some made up person from years ago to make Jasper feel better about himself for being an epic douche." There was a grunt behind her, and a snort from the one in front of her, but she just licked her lips and got to her point. "You had to know how stupid it was to come here, but you did it anyway. Why did you give up your anonymity, just like that?"

Peter hummed in his throat. "It weren't just like nothin'. Anonymity ain't so great as ya think, Sugar Bitches. When ya spend so much time and energy hidin', there ain't a whole lot left of it for livin'. Sides that, with that sumbitch behind ya where he at, it was only a matter of time 'fore shit went tits up for me and my lady. Wouldn't a taken long, either, not with your fella bein' a damn bloodhound."

Unable to help herself, Bella giggled slightly. "I've heard him called that a time or two."

Peter snorted. "It's true, and once he got a lock, ain't noone gonna out run 'im. He the fastest mother fucker on the planet, and if he out to catch ya, he gonna do it. I came here for two reasons. The first is ta protect my ol' lady. If I'm here, ain't nobody lookin' for her. The other was ta give you that." There was a hard scoff, and he flicked his eyes to his sire behind the newborn. Now, there wa a snarl in Peter's voice. "Shut it, Major. You ain't got the right. You done fucked up big, and you gonna learn there consequences for fuckin' up. She a baby. You know how ta handle babies, and it sure as hell ain't whatcha did. Wranglin' only effective if ya got the balls ta follow through, and you left yours in Mexico. You exactly where your ass belongs, and when you get out, I'ma be there waitin' ta kick ya ass."

With one last hard growl as Jasper snapped his head away from the piercing gaze, Peter returned his eyes to Bella, and pointed to the piece of James in her hand, his voice softening and losing the hard edge. "You get that to your fella. He'll know what ta do with it." At her inquisitive look, there was a partial debate by Peter before she sighed through his nose. "It the only thin' that gonna fix," tapping the back of his own jaw, "this."

The newborn visibly jolted. "He knows how to fix my face?" It was then Carlos once again attempted to intervene, but Bella shot that shit down with a glare and a 'shut up'.

Cringing, Peter scratched the back of his head. "Anyone that had it done to 'em knows what ta do." When he saw her eyes darken, he clicked his tongue. "Don't get all pissy, now. You ain't got the slightest idea what you in for with it. Sure, he knows what ta do, but trust me when I tell ya he ain't keepin' it from ya. He just prayin' there another way. There ain't, but that 'sides the point."

Glare still firmly on her features, Bella's voice took on a much less friendly tone. "Then what is the point?"

Changing his position, Peter grabbed the bars of his door, and leaned as close to her face as they would let him, locking his eyes on hers. "It. fuckin'. hurts." Leaning back when he knew he had her attention, he used his hands to explain. "You pretty damn young, so it gonna be pretty damn fresh in ya mind. I want ya ta think 'bout your change. Remember the fire? How long that shit lasted?" Though it was clearly an uncomfortable one, he saw Bella nod, and he went on. "You goin'ta feel every bit a it, all over again," bringing his palms together, "in all 'bout fifteen seconds... in ya face...twice. Once for the bone, and once for the graft. You move, even a little bit, he gonna have ta rebreak the bone, and do it again." When he heard her gulp, he humphed. "Ain't so pissy now, are ya? You ain't gonna have no help with it, either. You gonna havta do it all on your own. That twin's gift ain't gonna do shit." When he saw her drop her eyes, he sighed. "You gonna need ta talk ta your fella. He'll make sure ya understand whatcha gettin' into, but I'm here ta tell ya, it ain't pleasant."

Shoulders hunching, Bella snorted. "Sounds like that's a fucking understatement."

Huffing a slightly amused, but mostly sympathetic, noise, Peter backed off his cell door, taking a seat a foot away from the bars, and looking up at her. "You ain't got no idea how true that shit is."

Tapping her foot a couple of times, Bella bit hard into her bottom lip before she crouched down to Peter's level. "Since you know so much, do you know what you did to yourself when you came here? What's going to happen to you for helping me? What's going to happen to Charlotte if you don't resurface?"

Dropping his head back against the wall, Peter closed his eyes. "Char gonna be just fine, don't you worry none 'bout her. As for the rest..." cracking an eye open, "I'm wanted for war crimes, Little Sugar. I ain't goin' nowhere."

Remaining in her crouched position for a few moments, Bella's mind danced with different scenarios on whether there was anything she could do. She didn't know how, but she knew she owed this vampire more than just his freedom, so with a hum in her throat, she stood. As she slipped the piece of her sire into her back pocket, she turned away from Peter's cell and left the block, her words floating back to Peter's ears, making him open both eyes and cock a brow.

"We'll see about that."


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay, so, I wasn't going to be doing AN in this story, but since it's been asked so many times, I'll give the rundown on the Cullens.**

 **Jasper, Alice, and Emmett are still in the dungeon as they were the ones that actually killed James. In order to keep Bella as calm as he can, Demetri gave the instructions to keep them detained until she either grows out of her need of her sire (the eleven month remark in chapter 8), or until he can figure out something to do with them and ensure Bella never crosses their paths while she's still under a year.**

 **Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, and Edward were only to remain in their cell until they ate the human they shared it with. There was a four day time jump between chapter 8 and chapter 9, though that was a passing statement that could have been missed, during which time they did kill and feed from their respective human; mostly to avoid having more time tacked onto the back end of their service.**

 **They had not been out of detainment very long before Rose got into a fight in the barracks, and only about a day before Edward pulled his stupid little stunt.**

 **I hope this cleared up the confusion, and here is your next chapter.**

 **~Speklez**

 ***X***

A body designed by the Devil and perfected by time not to make a sound when it moved could be heard coming as Demetri traverse the halls. Not a word was uttered by those he passed. No one wanted those pits of black fire directed at them, so they did their best to become invisible.

The truth was, though, Demetri could barely see.

He didn't know why he was so surprised to find when he arrived at the barracks to deal with an orange eyed freak the room was one short, but for whatever reason, he did think someone would have been smart enough to not allow that to happen. Regardless of the fact the guard was a voluntary service, for the most part, everyone knew the Cullens were not there by choice, therefore were not allowed to leave. He hadn't gotten far, only a couple dozen miles into the hills beyond the wall. He would be easy enough to retrieve, because he had nowhere to go.

Demetri's problem was, he wasn't dressed for a cross-country run in the middle of the afternoon, and he was exceptionally pissed off he was going to have to make one once he changed.

As the tracker approached the broken doors to the Elite wing, he paused, looking over Alec's shoulder as the twin went about removing the broken panel so he could replace it. He then shifted his eyes to the doors themselves, the one to his left hanging from a broken hinge.

Shaking his head as he dropped a screw, Alec glanced back Demetri. "It gets worse the further you walk down the hall." He knew the man behind him had the details of what happened by now, he just wasn't stupid enough to ask for them. Returning his eyes to the broken panel, he lightly cleared his throat. "She okay? She looked really upset when she passed by."

He blinked when he got yet another surprise in the way of finding out Bella was actually where she was told to be. Still, he nodded. "Barely, but yes; she's fine."

Going back to removing screws, Alec tilted his head. "Did you kill him?" He could smell Edward, though it was buried under a lot of other scents.

Growling low, he crossed his arms. "Not yet. The coward ran like a little bitch, and now I have to go hunting."

Alec cringed at the tone that took over his boss' voice, and he leaned to the side as Demetri entered the hall. "Do you want me to keep an eye on her while you're gone?"

Pausing, Demetri turned half way back, his hands clasped behind his back. "Yes. If one of them is stupid enough to pull something so utterly foolish, I'm positive the others are as well." When he saw Alec nod, he turned back to the hall and continued on his way, glancing down at the broken tile over halfway down the hall.

Flicking his eyes to the shattered window, that was his next stop. Sticking his head out, he lowered his eyes to the ground, watching as one of the groundskeepers went about replacing the broken pavement and disturbed grass. Glancing behind him, his lips pursed as he followed the path of destruction, almost able to see it happen, and grunted before turning away and going to his room to change into something more conducive to the time of day.

It was as he was buttoning his shirt there was a knock on his door, and glancing at it, he called for Isabella to come in. When she did, she closed the door behind her, but stayed where she was, leaning back against the wood with her hands behind her. Fixing the collar of his shirt, he lifted a brow when she remained silent. "Did you need something, Neos?"

There was a look of deep contemplation and indecision on her face, but after a moment, she lifted her eyes to him, watching as he picked up a black scarf and wrapped it around his throat. "Can I ask you something?"

Settling the length of cloth around his neck, there was a slight level of agitation on his part at the emotions in her eyes. Picking up his jacket that only went down to his waist, Demetri nodded. "Of course."

Reaching up to scratch her eyebrow, Bella licked her lips before clearing her throat and locking her eyes on his. "Do you know how to fix my face?"

In the middle of shrugging on his jacket, Demetri froze, his eyes closing and a hard sigh slipping past his lips. His movements were much slower when he continued to dress, and his words were clearly chosen very carefully. "I know of one way, yes, but please, Agapimenos, don't ask me to do it." When she opened her mouth, he cut in again. "I will _beg you_ not to ask. In this instance, I am not above it." It was almost helpless the way his arms dropped to his side. "I cannot deny you, and I cannot do it."

Biting her lip, Bella nodded as she pushed herself off the door and finally made her way into the room. When she reached his bed, she leaned against the side of the foot board, and crossed her arms, looking up at him through her lashes. "Would you let someone else?"

It was the look in her eyes that gave her away.

Sighing, Demetri took a seat on his bed, leaning back on his elbows and propping a foot on the mattress. An expectant look settled on his features as he tilted his head. "What was Caius' ruling, Neos?"

Cringing slightly at the tone, Bella rubbed her face along her shoulder and cleared her throat, speaking as quickly as she could but still able to be understood. "All war crime charges forgiven but one year for impersonation of a guard in a position of your choosing."

 _Bingo_. Giving nothing away with his expression, Demetri looked at his nails, knowing the answer before it was asked. "And what was the position of my choosing, Isabella?"

There was a clear gulp from the female, but she answered. Putting her hands up, she licked her suddenly dry lips. "Okay, hear me out."

Looking her dead in the eyes, Demetri smirked. "Oh, believe me, you have my full attention."

Moving away from the foot board, Bella also took a seat on the bed, pushing herself back and turning her body to face Demetri as she crossed her legs. "I thought a lot about what happened earlier, and the truth is, I am at a huge disadvantage. Things wouldn't have gone down like that if I could open my mouth. I could have bit him and gotten free without getting a full case of the heebie jeebies."

Letting out a breath as she again cleared her throat, she looked around the ceiling, searching for the words, and looking back at Demetri when she had them. "I know why you didn't tell me you knew what to do to undo what happened."

That was where Demetri cut in. Pushing himself to his hands, he shook his head. "No, that isn't possible, and if you are under the impression someone can fix everything, you are under the wrong impression."

Bella also shook her head. "Oh, no... I know that." Pointing directly to the hole, she circled her finger around it. "I meant undo this."

Pressing his lips together, Demetri grunted. "Can't do that either, Psihi Mou. The bone? Sure, that can be fixed. But, unless you want to sacrifice a different part of your body to act as a graft, it won't do much. You'll still lose too much venom through the hole, and the healing will still be very slow."

Sucking her bottom lip into her teeth, she lowered her eyes before shifting and pulling the piece of her sire out of her back pocket, and presenting it to her guardian. "What about this?"

Seeing a piece of vampire flesh in his female's hand, he misunderstood where it came from, and growled hard enough to actually vibrate the bed he was still laying on. Sitting up and plucking the stone from Bella's hand, his lips pulled from his teeth. "I'm not just going to kill him. I'm going to do so much worse."

Shrinking back, just because she felt that growl in her own bones, she swallowed hard. "It's not what you think." When black eyes locked on hers, she let out a slow breath. "That's what Peter risked his life and sacrificed his freedom for." Lowering her eyes, she looked at the skin in Demetri's hand, her voice going soft. "That's... that's all that's left of James."

Brows shooting to his bangs, Demetri, completely caught off guard, blinked. "This is your sire?" He watched as Bella wrapped her arms loosely around her stomach, nodding in face, shallow dips of her head.

Picking up the skin from his head, he looked at it with a new light. Holding it between his thumb and side of his forefinger, he hummed in his throat. It was his venom in her veins, and if this really was his skin, it would fuse to her without any problem at all, and be rejected after her venom became her own.

Pushing himself to his feet, he pulled the scarf from his neck, and tossing it on his bed. Sweeping past Bella, he slipped the piece of her sire into the pocket of his jacket. "Come with me." He heard her scramble to follow, and he didn't pause for her to catch up. He also didn't pause when he left the hall, only told Alec it was break time and to come with him as well.

Dropping the pliers in his hand, Alec stumbled once, but caught up quickly enough, fall into step with Bella, who was two steps behind Demetri. He looked at her, his expression asking what was going on, to which she shrugged with her own look of confusion.

Demetri said nothing to either of them as he led the way back down to the catacombs, and still didn't explain himself as he pointed to a room Alec knew well enough. It was where changing humans were put, and he actually bulked when he was told to wait there with Bella.

That was point Alec couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer, and actually skirted the hall to get in front of Demetri to block his path. Once he did, the twin crossed his arms. "What the hell is going on, Dem?"

Pushing past him, Demetri glanced back as he banged on the metal door that had seen a lot of use lately. "I'll let you know in a minute."

Before Alec could say another word, Demetri vanished inside, leaving him to growl in his throat as he walked backwards. "Sometimes that guy is such an asshole." Shaking his head, he reached above the door for the key to the room he was pointed to, unlocking in and moving to the side once it was open to allow Bella room to enter as well.

Standing outside Peter's cell, Demetri pulled out the piece of his charge's sire, tapping it on the bars, which caught Peter's attention. Cocking a brow, he held the flesh up and narrowed his eyes. "Where did you get this?"

Peter closed his eyes with a sigh, though he didn't move to get up. "Had it for bit. Her sire and I went a few rounds few years back." When there was no response for a moment, Peter cracked an eye open, seeing the tracker looking at him with a tilted head and a thoughtful expression.

Humming in his throat, Demetri curled his tongue behind his teeth. "Why did you bring it?"

Peter just lifted a shoulder. "Seemed like the right thin' ta do. No need ta make a lady suffer for thirty years if it ain't necessary."

Knowing a lie when he heard one, Demetri waited another moment, weighing his options before, not taking his eyes off Peter, calling for Carlos. He would bide his time on calling the man on his lie because currently, there were other things that needed seen to. When he got the expected answer, he took a step back. "Open it."

Those two words set a rock in Peter's gut and his lip curled. "You gonna hit me again, aintcha?"

A very cruel smirk pulled at Demetri's lips. He crossed his arms, tapping the piece of James on his bicep as Carlos appeared in his line of view to do as he was told. "Time will tell."

Once there was no safety net between him and Demetri, Peter got very nervous. Even with his intuition, it was impossible to know what kind of mood the vampire in front of him was in, and what it was he was going to do. It's what made the tracker so dangerous. Besides his speed and fighting ability, he was completely unpredictable, and that made for a very volatile mother fucker.

Demetri, however, decided to reserve judgement for the time being. At this point, what happened was up to Peter, so all he did was turn away, crooking a finger to tell the Captain of legend to follow him.

It wasn't until they were in the hall and the door to the block was shut Demetri turned to look at Peter, his face still blank. "Here's the deal. You owe... Oh, about seven centuries worth of service for your crimes against our race."

Peter crossed his arms and nodded once. "I know it. Willin' ta do it, too."

Cocking his head to the side and turning it slightly, Demetri hummed. "Are you? Seven hundred years away from your mate? Even for one such as us, that is a very long time."

Growling low in his chest, Peter pointed a finger at Demetri. "You stay the fuck away from her, ya hear?"

Face expressionless, Demetri merely snapped his teeth at the finger in his face. He crossed his own arms as Peter jerked his hand back. "Shut up. You have no ground to stand on, and no bartering tool in which to use to weasel your way out of your situation. I said there was a deal, but if you wish to hear it, you would be wise not to make such ridiculous threats. I promise you will never see your Tessoro again."

Giving Peter a moment to make his choice, Demetri continued once it was clear he was going to keep his mouth shut. "Isabella has been very busy since she left your company, advocating on your behalf. This is where you should pay close attention. Somehow, she was able to convince Master Caius to reduce your sentence down to a singular year, doing a very specific job."

There wasn't a need to elaborate on that, he got the jist. Reaching across his throat, Peter scratched at the back of his jaw with his thumb, one eye crinkled and his lip slightly curled. "Six hundit and ninety- eight years relegated ta community service? You shittin' me." When Demetri shook his head, Peter crossed his arms. "I'ma regret this, but what I gotta do?"

A very similar smirk from inside the cell block pulled at the tracker's lips as he held up the piece of James between his fore and middle fingers. "I'll give you a guess."

Eyes snapping from the piece of vampire skin, the tracker, and the open door up the hall, his eyes finally fell back on Demetri and he shook his head. "That ain't just a naw; that a hell naw. I don't do that shit no more."

Demetri merely lifted a shoulder, the corner of his lips turning down, clearly saying he didn't care which way the decision was made. He just leaned against the wall, propping his foot up and looking at Peter with a grin. "It is, of course, your choice. I'm sure I can figure out something to do with you for next near millennia. Though, I suppose that is getting a little ahead of myself. That would depend on if you live through the next two minutes."

Jerking his head back, Peter's face pinched. "Why ya say that?"

Grin growing, Demetri chuckled. "Because you are going to be the one to tell her no, and after everything she went through on your behalf? God speed, Captain." He watched as Peter cut his eyes back to where he left Alec and Bella, seeing the war behind his eyes. Clicking his tongue, Demetri tilted his head to the side. "Perhaps you should use this as a lesson on why it's so important to stay out of the affairs of others."

Peter's entire face pinched as if he smelled something god awful, and grunted. "Yeah... I ain't ever been good at that."

Running a hand down his face, he took three steps toward the room, pausing when the little lady came into sight. She was sitting on a slab in the middle of the room, her head turned to look at Alec and away from the door, giving him a full view of damage. It was certainly extensive, but it wasn't actually as bad as some of the injuries, or punishments, he's dealt with in the past.

Glancing back, he then looked at Demetri, a frown coming to his lips. The tracker wasn't looking at him either, his eyes cast to the ground. Over his life, Peter has seen the best and the worst of the vampire race, and the son of a bitch five feet from was firmly among the latter. Looking at him right now though, Peter actually had to ask himself if that was as true as he thought.

The man absolutely had all the hallmarks of 'don't fuck with me'; the explosive, hair-trigger temper paired with the unpredictable actions that followed the loss of said temper would be enough to get just about anyone to lose control of their unworking bladder. He also had a completely lack of care for anyone or anything outside a very select few, A level of personal confidence that would choke a damn horse, and the ability to make someone thank him for being told to go to hell.

He also never went out of his way to hurt someone; he was just really good at it. Bad news always tends to travel further than good or neutral, so you always hear about death before mercy. Harming someone was never needlessly, either. The tracker was so genetically superior to others, he literally did not make mistakes. He never tracked down the wrong person, he never harmed someone that didn't actually deserve it, he never used excessive force against someone who couldn't defend themselves, and he never allowed a male to harm a female in anyway unbecoming of what he considered a gentleman. He had his own set of rules that ran in tangent with the laws decreed by Aro, and may the Devil help someone that broke any of them.

Peter had no idea how the fuck Aro convinced this vampire to hear his word as gospel all those centuries ago, but Peter _knew,_ at least at one point, Demetri actually did believe whatever it was he had been told. There was either a personal experience to back it up, or his presence hasn't always been as voluntary as the tracker thought. Peter was positive Aro deserved to have his ass handed to him on a silver platter many, many times over the years, but it wasn't until Isabella came into the tracker's life he did it, and that struck Peter as very odd.

Vampires were creatures of habit, and if they do something for as long as Demetri has, it does become a part of who they are. However, they were also self-serving assholes, and that was one characteristic that was exclusively absent from this particular vampire's personality. Peter was bigger than Demetri was, but that didn't stop the smaller vampire from doing what instinct said was a very bad idea. But, he wasn't making thinly veiled threats on his own behalf, they were on the part his intended mate; the one person on the planet a male will lay his life down for.

Peter's lip curled as he cut his eyes back to the infant. Something wasn't right with this picture. When he left Char to come to Italy, he was listening to the voices in his head, something he learned was very dangerous not to do, but he had never been given the reason behind it. He wasn't being told to go there for Jasper, which was surprising. He was told to go because of this little one, and he still wasn't sure why it was. The voices didn't either, but they were screaming in the back of his mind, demanding he figure it out, and before it was too late. Demetri trained killers, and while Peter was positive he could take no small number of them on his own, if someone got their hands on the infant?

Growling in the back of his throat, Peter turned back to Demetri and snatched the piece of vampire skin from the tracker's extended hand. "Fine, I'll do it, but your ass ain't gonna be here for it. If I'm dealin' with her, I ain't gonna have the ability ta deal with you, too."

Pushing himself off the wall, Demetri took no issue with his words. It was the reason he had gotten him out of his cell in the first place. He knew he wouldn't be able to anywhere near the screams without doing something, and there wasn't anything he could really do. Crossing his arms, the tracker nodded. "Deal; I'm late for a hunt as it is."

Peter blinked at how easy that was, though the look in Demetri's eyes was more resigned that accepting. Looking after him, Peter called after the retreating male. "I'ma need help."

Demetri didn't look back. "That's what Alec is for."

Snorting hard, Peter shook his head. "He ain't gonna do nothin' but get in my way. I need the Major."

That got the tracker to stop. Whipping back, his eyes were narrowed. "No."

Challenge entered Peter's eyes as he jerked his head toward the room that held the newborn. "Then find me someone that ain't too afraid a you ta hurt that girl. This shit sucks, you know that. She ain't gonna stay still, and ain't a one a us want me ta have ta do it more than once. I need someone that knows that they doin', and that twin ain't got no idea. She gonna jerk, he gonna let her, and I'ma have rebreak her damn jaw. If that's what ya what, then fine, but _you_ gonna be the one that tells her that."

Glaring in a much darker fashion, there was a growl in Demetri's throat. "You realize he's one of the reasons this necessary, yes? And she wants to kill him because of it?"

A very flat look settled on Peter's features. "Don't let this accent fool ya, Boy; I ain't stupid. I know why my sire locked up in that cell, and his ass deserves ta be there. Thing is though, he done this 'fore, too, and it ain't no skin off his ass. Everyone this done to wants ta kill someone involved in it. Ain't never thought she be different in that respect. She different in the way ain't no gift gonna help that baby through it. She gonna feel it all, and that boy in there ain't got no idea how strong a newborn actually is. So make ya choice, Kid. Am I gonna help her, or am I gonna torture 'er? There a very thin line 'tween the two when it comes ta puttin' someone back tagether."

Turning to face Peter fully, Demetri's eyes actually glowed. "You may strike fear in the unbeating hearts of everyone else in this castle, but there is not a fragment of my being that is afraid of you. I train killers, and I can take on every last one of them... and win. Your reputation may precede you, but I am not even slightly impressed. I have been alive longer than your entire lineage has existed, I can almost guarantee it. Your body count is laughable compared to mine, and if you think I will not add to it, call me something other than my name again; I fucking dare you."

Darting from his place, he crouched down next to Peter, swinging his arm out, and catching the other vampire on the back of the knees. With a shift of his shoulder, he twisted his body around, the flat of his hand on Peter's chest, and shoved him onto his back onto the floor. Giving him no time to recover, Demetri was back on his feet, looking down his nose at the downed vampire as he stepped on Peter's throat.

Eyes locking on the Captain's, Demetri slightly tilted his head, his voice completely leveling out. "You are out here and not in that cell for one reason, one reason only, and it is not out of the kindness of my useless black heart. You have no one but Isabella to thank for this. She has either taken a liking to you, or she feels as though she owes you. I'm not sure which one and I truly do not care which way that particular pendulum swings. She made a request, and I do not hold the ability to deny her. That said, however, you will be soon be little more than a footnote in her life, and if you do not want to become a footnote in the lives of everyone else you know, you would be wise to be very mindful when it comes to how you speak to me on matters that concern her. If I torture for fun, just imagine what I would do with an actual reason."

Bella, who had watched most of what happened, though missed parts of how Peter ended up on his back because of how fast Demetri was, bit her lip as she cleared her throat, catching the attention of both vampires in the hall. "You could have just said no, Demetri."

Giving her a somewhat indulgent smile, Demetri hummed. "Do you think so, Neos?" When she nodded, he then clicked his tongue. "Seems there is a conversation in our future." Returning his attention to Peter, he crouched, putting slightly more pressure on the vampire's throat. Not enough to cause decapitation, but enough to prove a point. Dropping his hand over his knees, he ran his tongue along his teeth before he tsked. "The parameters of this are quite simple. For the next three hundred and sixty-five days, if she is not with me, she is with you. Every time she slips your supervision is a month you will spend in my dungeon when this year is up, so were I you, I would have a word with the resident Houdini about that. If _anything_ happens to her while in your protection, there will not be enough left of you for your mate to mourn." Leaning closer to Peter's face, Demetri lifted a brow. "Clear?"

Trying to swallow out of reflex, Peter shifted in an attempt to alleviate the pressure on his adam's apple. His voice was strained, but he did verbally answer. "Yes, Sir."

Grinning wide enough to show his teeth, Demetri patted Peter on the cheek and stood, removing his foot and turning his back on him, ignoring the 'asshole' comment. Stopping in front of his charge, he sighed quietly. "You have personally chosen your guardian, so I expect you to actually _stay_ with your chosen guardian. When this is over, show him to the room next to yours. I should be back in an hour at most."

Frowning, Bella crossed her arms and looked up him through her lashes. "You just got back."

Licking his lips, Demetri glanced at the ceiling before looking back at her. "I have a dead man to track down and retrieve. Sadly, Psihi Mou, it is an unfortunate truth that you will likely need to get used to my absence." When a clear pout settled on Bella's features, Demetri lifted a hand and cupped her cheek. "I'll make it up to you."

At the statement, something sparked in Bella's eyes as a grin spread her lips. "By not making me go to this stupid ball?"

A rough snort left the tracker as he rolled his eyes. "If I have to attend, you have to attend."

"Well, that hardly seems fair."

Chuckling, Demetri dipped his head, brushing his lips against hers. "I'll make that up to you too, Agapimenos." Pressing his lips to hers, he ten pulled back and gave her a tender smile. "I'll see you soon." Once she nodded to him, he turned back to Peter, who was still sitting on the floor with his hand around his throat. There was a grin on his face and amusement in his voice. "Alec will retrieve your requested aid. So we're clear, when you're done, the animal goes back in his cage. She advocated for you, not him."

Peter just shrugged as he rubbed his neck. "Fair 'nuff." From his place on the floor, he watched at the tracker turned into a completely different guy when Demetri's attention returned to the lady, his thumb gently brushing her scarred cheek before he turned and headed for the stairs. A shudder ran Peter's veins as he actually _felt_ the drop in temperature when the man was out of the vampiress' direct presence. He knew the dude was cold, but damn.

Shaking his head, Peter pushed himself to his feet, giving a smile to the infant that looked at him with apology in her eyes. Before she was able to get it out, though, he held up a hand. "That could've gone worse." When she cocked a brow at him, he actually laughed as he entered the room she was in. Grabbing Alec by the arm before he got to the door, he dipped his head and spoke in his ear. "Don't let 'im in here til I get the lady down. Don't need ta make no problems where there ain't any." Looking at Bella, he smiled at her again. "I got all ten fingers and important body parts. I ain't mad at that."

Bella's eyes crinkled in the corners. "What did you just say to him?"

All Peter did was shrug. "Ain't got no idea whatcha talkin' 'bout. Now," he patted the concrete slab, "up ya go, Little Sugar." He saw the clear 'I don't believe you' look in her eyes, but she did listen, and he grabbed her legs, turning her in a way that when she laid down, she wouldn't be facing the door. "Okay, Little Lady; you know you strong as shit, so I'ma need ya ta help me a bit. It gonna keep you and me safe from the fact I'ma gonna piss ya right the fuck off. You 'member when I said this shit fuckin' hurts?" When she nodded, he continued. "There ain't nothin' that gonna make it better. You gonna haveta stay as still as ya can, or I'ma haveta do it again."

He saw her gulp, but he just set both hands on the slat to either side of her thighs and bent at the waist, looking in her eyes. "Listen real good now, Sugar. You need ta understand somethin'. This ain't gonna do a lot. I ain't gonna be burinin' the whole bone, only the side a it. You gonna be able ta open ya mouth, and you gonna be able ta bite ya meal, but that gonna be 'bout it for a while still. It gonna take time for the whole bone ta fix itself," holding up the piece of James, "which is where this come in. When I put this on the skin, it ain't gonna hurt _as_ bad, but it still ain't gonna be pleasant. This gonna cover the hole and actually keep the venom ya body producing in ya mouth so it can so what it meanin' ta do. You ain't gonna have a lota strength in ya jaw for a while now, so don't go bittin' no one. Someone needs bitten, you let me or ya fella do it. That can rebreak this flimsy little bone, and then you _really_ ain't gonna like gettin' it fixed."

Bella ran a hand down her face at let out a breath, but she set her resolve and nodded again. She was really left with a lot to say on the matter, so what was she really supposed to?

Pushing himself to stand, Peter talked her through what he wanted her to do with visuals. "Make ya hands inta fists, cross your wrists, and lay on 'em, fingers against ya chest." Once she did as she was told, he gave her a moment to shift around into a somewhat more comfortable position with her arms trapped under her, and he crouched to look her in the eyes. "Now, I'ma do this as fast as I can, but I gotta make sure the bone right 'fore I can move onta the graft. Once I start, I can't stop, so if ya got a happy place? I suggest ya go there." When she closed her eyes, Peter hoisted himself onto the platform, crouching over her back.

There were moments in Bella's life she could remember being scared. Not an hour ago she was terrified. In this moment, as she felt her hair slide across her skin and Peter's palm under her jaw, she was damn near petrified. She was vibrating from fear, a whine in her throat. She did heard a quiet 'shh' from the man above her, but she could hear her jaw bone scrape against itself as he shifted it around and into proper alignment.

Right outside the room, Jasper waited, silent and out of sight. He would have much preferred to be left out of this, but if anyone one would have resulted in having to do this more than once, he would suck it up and hold the girl down. He did make a face with Alec's near silent voice caressed his ear, asking about what Bella was about to go through. Glancing at him with a curled lip, Jasper grunted. "Have you ever even been bitten?" He scoffed and rolled his eyes at the answer of 'a few times'. "Then you can't even begin to comprehend what she's about to endure. Just stay out of the way, or we'll blame you if we have to do it again." It was almost said as an afterthought when he glanced at Alec. "And keep everyone else out of the way."

Peter, once the bone was set into place, he cut his eyes to the door, seeing Alec leaning on the frame and, peaking through the gap between Alec's head and the wall, was Jasper. The two had been in so many situations over their time together in south, they didn't even need words. Peter cocked a brow at his sire as he swiped the pad of his thumb across his tongue, and when Jasper gave a jerky nod, he gave one last look at the bone and swiped his venom covered thumb over it, leaving behind a smear... and the reaction was instant.

Her struggle started, and Peter shifted his body, putting all of his weight on her back in the way of his leg pressed down the length of her spine. Jasper had darted into the room, quickly taking up position behind Peter on the slab, his knees in the back of Bella's, crossing her ankles, and pinning down her legs.

Bella, two seconds in, thrashed, jerking her at her pinned arms and trying to get her head out of Peter's hold. He still had his palm shoved under her chin, keeping her mouth shut, and the heel of his other hand pressed into her temple to keep her from turning.

 _Five seconds, her teeth ground together._

 _Six seconds, her eyes opened._

 _Seven seconds, venom actually leaked from the corner of her eye._

 _Eight seconds, she felt a weight on her face and her vision blacked out_

 _Nine seconds, for the first time in weeks, her jaw allowed her mouth to open, and a scream ripped from her throat that actually shattered the window in the room._

 _Eleven seconds, she got her arms free_

 _Twelve seconds, she got herself free_

At the thirteen second mark, Peter waved Jasper out of the room. The baby was free, and there wasn't anyway that was going to change. All they could do was wait it out and hope the graft took before she had the chance to rip it off.

Jasper glanced once at Bella as he rubbed his own jaw. Had it really been that fucking long since he dealt with a brand new vampire one actually got a very solid hit to his face? It hadn't taken her but three seconds to break his hold on her ankles, and she nailed him with her heel right in the back of the jaw when he turned away to avoid the shot to the nose.

Bella, though, still felt like someone set her face on fire. Curled into a ball on her forehead, knees, and toes, she dug her nails into the floor, leaving deep gouges in her wake. She had stopped screaming, but there was a constant, deep growl in her chest. It felt like it was never going to end, and quite honestly, she also felt as though she was going insane from it.

Taking his time to close the distance, Peter crouched next to the snarling infant. He tried to see if the graft took without touching her, but her hair was in the. When he went to move it, she rounded on him with a snap of her teeth, to which Peter yanked his arm back with a 'Hey'. Her eyes were glossed over, but that didn't stop him from giving her a scolding look. "What I say 'bout that bittin', Youngen?"

When she lunged at him, he sighed. "'Ight," Snatching her out of the air, he contorted his body, slamming the newborn on her back, and pressing his knee into her throat, stilling her pretty fast since it's instinct not to get your head taken off. "We can do it your way." He watched as her eyes slowly started to clear, the vigor in which she growled lessened, and the coil of her muscles loosened. Grinning at her when he was sure she could actually see him, he cocked a brow at her. "Don't bite me, now. I'm just lookin'."

Bella just let him turn her head to the side and move her hair. She couldn't actually make out the words he said, but the most pitiful sounding whine the world had ever heard slipped past her lips when she felt pressure on the side of her face.

Giving the graft a close inspection, he did press on one part, sealing it against her skin. The worst was over, but it would still take another few minutes for the graft to take fully. If she could take that kind of a snap at him, he was confident in the mending of the bone, and in a couple of months, that would be nothing but a nightmare to remember. The piece of her sire would come off on its own when she outgrew his venom and hers rejected the skin as the foreign object it actually was. The other claw marks would also start to heal at that point, but she certainly had one hell of a long road of recovery ahead of her.

She needed to eat, but since she hadn't ever actually done it for herself before, it was something that was going to have to wait. Feeding someone else's intended mate was certainly not his place, and he really didn't want to deal with an already pissed off male over semantics. Something like what she just went through took nearly everything out of an adult vampire, and this one was barely over a month. Until she fed, she was gonna be weak and the closest thing to tired she would ever feel again.

Shifting his position, he slipped his arms under her knees and behind her shoulders, hoisting the infant into his arms and standing. She was still shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, and he hummed in the back of his throat. "Impressive little thing, aintcha?" At the clearing of a throat, Peter turned to look to the door, seeing Alec standing there.

When he saw he had the attention of Peter, Alec tilted his head to side. "I'll show you to her room."

If she could fall asleep, Bella was positive she would. She couldn't remember a time, even when she was human, she was this tired... or in this much pain. Her face still hurt, and it certainly didn't help that was side that was laying on Peter's shoulder as he carried her through the halls. He certainly wasn't killing when he told her it was like feeling the entire change in her face. A very large part of her thought the Cullens, or at least Carlisle, got off way too easy since it was all his fault she had to go through that. If he would have called Aro first and not the wolves, she was pretty damn positive Demetri would have found her before that dog did.

That son of a bitch just found himself on her shit list. She would sooner see him dead than the ones that killed her sire, and when Demetri got back, she had every intention of relaying that.

Peter, laying Bella down on her bed to await the return of her fella, dipped his head and whispered in her ear. "'Memeber this, Little Lady; I gotcha back, and desperate men do stupid shit."

It took a Herculean effort to open her eyes and look back at Peter, who had already moved away and was taking a seat at her desk by the door. She watched as he kicked his feet up on the top, crossing his ankles and snagging the book that was sitting there. She didn't say anything to him, she was too tired. But, she did file his comment away for later evaluation, before rolling back over and getting comfortable. She knew she wasn't going to actually sleep, but that didn't mean she couldn't daydream about what Demetri was doing to Edward, and what she was going to have him to do Carlisle.


	13. Chapter 13

He tried... he really did.

No matter how fast he was, Demetri was not fast enough to outrun the screams. He hadn't even so much as stumbled in more years than he was able to count, but when that first ear splitting, soul crushing sound assaulted his ears, not only did he lose his footing for the first time he could literally remember since toddlerhood when he was learning to walk, he also cursed his hearing.

He didn't just have the advanced hearing of a vampire, his was heightened even more because of the kind of vampire he was. His ears picked up the sounds from miles further than an average vampire's, and he was able to hear additional ranges in pitch. Other than the first three years or so of his new life, his supersonic hearing hadn't been an issue; at least not once he got used to it. He had learned ways to tone it down some when in more enclosed spaces, but when outside, it never really crossed his mine to do it.

Hand on the ground, he kicked his legs over his head, quickly taking control of the stumble by digging his toes into the grass and sliding to a stop, crouched and facing the way he had just come. Never, in his life, had he been so completely torn before. He knew he couldn't actually be with her, but that didn't mean he didn't _want_ to be. However, he also knew this wasn't about what he wanted; it was about what she did. There was nothing about her that bothered him. To him, she was perfect as she was, but he knew she didn't think so, and if the best thing he could do to help her was physically remove himself from the area so he didn't intervene, then that was what he was going to do.

Besides, for whatever reason, his girl decided she liked the one he left her with, so maybe, if the Gods will it, he can keep her trouble making ass out of trouble.

As another scream tore at him, a growled snarl ripped from him.

One thing at a time, however.

Pivoting on his toes, Demetri was off again in a dead sprint, heading for a patch of wooded area he knew Edward was hoping to take refuge. It wasn't very large, only a handful of square miles, but at 3 o'clock on a cloudless afternoon, it was the only place he could go to provide enough shade for the fact the stupid prick hadn't covered his skin when he took off. Then again, Demetri supposed if someone was about to beat his ass like he was going to do to Edward, he probably wouldn't waste time getting some distance from him, either.

It took quite a bit to catch the tracker off guard, though he would grudgingly admit it had happened quite a few times over the last seventeen days. He knew one had to expect a certain level of fuckary when dealing with an infant, but never in his life had he been given such a shock by someone Edward's age.

Sliding to a stop two dozen feet or so into the trees, he stood slack jawed at the sight he was met with. He was still several miles from the Cullen, but he was able to see perfectly well through the trees and watch as Edward leapt from tree to another, pretty high up in the canopy. One arm crossing over his chest, he rubbed his lips with the fingertips of the other hand, his brows creased. There was no way he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.

"Was that... is he chasing a squirrel... and losing?"

For another two minutes he watched as Edward fucking Cullen continued to be outsmarted by a rodent. At that point, it was simply amusing. He had never seen anything like it, and there was a large part of him that wished the camera on his phone was better than it was. It wasn't really _allowed_ when it came to recording a vampire being a vampire, but Jesus. This was certainly not something one saw everyday, and he was positive he lovely little mate would enjoy watching it.

When the squirrel once again avoided capture, Demetri shook his head. "At this point, death would be merciful." Then he grinned. "Can't have that, can we?"

Waiting in his place, he watched as the squirrel dove, and took off, meeting Edward head-on as he too landed on the ground. As the mind reader was lunging for the animal, Demetri swung his leg, and caught Edward dead center of his face, sending him flying backwards and into a tree. He felt the stone flesh of the vampire's face crumble against his shin, and he chuckled in his throat. The behemoth of a trunk took the impact well enough, but the tree shook hard enough to look like it was going to come down. It didn't, thankfully, but it was close.

Listening as the squirrel darted through the fallen leaves and back into the safety of the trees, he leveled his sights on Edward, slowly closing the distance between them. His voice was deep and colored in malicious amusement. "What's wrong, Cullen? Underfed? Not quite feeling up to par? Senses a little sluggish, are they? I'm curious if there is anyone that can possibly sympathize with your plight."

Edward, who had bounced off the tree trunk, was knelt with his forearms on the ground, his ass in the air, and his face cradled in his palms. Never had he been in so much pain before; not even during the change. He could feel the sticky wetness of his venom coat his hands and slide down in the cracks in his face. But, when he heard Demetri, he acted without a lot of thought. Pushing himself up just enough to use his arm, he pushed off the dirt with his toes and lunged.

Demetri just rolled his eyes as he sidestepped the piss poor excuse of an attack, lifting his knee at just the right moment to catch the vampire in the stomach, abruptly stopping the forward momentum, and grabbing the man by the hair on the back of his head, ripped him backward and forcing him into the ground on his back.

Crouching with him, the fakest look of mock remorse settled on Demetri's features as he took in the damage his shin did to Edward's face. His nose was completely crushed, spider webs appearing in the skin of his cheeks and up between his eyes. His upper lip was fragmented, chip and chunks missing and exposing his cracked teeth.

Demetri's voice was a mix of bullshit sadness and empathy as he shook his head and tsked through puckered lips. "Ooh... that looks like it hurts. I could be wrong, but it might be a little hard for you to eat in the time to come. So sorry."

Face falling into a mask of indifference, he let go of Edward's hair, shifted his weight, grabbed the son of a bitch by the throat and hoisted him off the ground. Whipping around, he slammed Edward against a different tree as his eyes ignited. Getting nose to hole with the mind reader, Demetri spoke low. "I take no pleasure in harming those that cannot defend themselves. Believe it or not, it actually makes me ill. But creatures like you? Those that force themselves on others? Those that think they have a right to touch someone who doesn't have the ability to prevent it? Those so vile they believe themselves so superior to others they feel they are not only owed something, but design to take it without care of recourse? Those despicable monsters are a different matter entirely, and creatures I take great pleasure in destroying."

Looking at the blurred and fuzzy image of Demetri that was too close to really make out, Edward tried to listen to his thoughts, but he couldn't make it out. It was too loud and distorted, making understanding what he was hearing impossible. Attempting to swallow, Edward choked on the venom that got caught under the pressure of Demetri's hands. "Then just kill me."

It was with a snap of his teeth, Demetri barked his response. "No. There is no punishment in death, and no lesson learned when dead. I personally guarantee you will survive to serve every day of your sentence; promise every day to be worse than the last. And when you can physically take no more, when you are mentally broken, I will turn you loose and watch with glee as you lose the last morsel of your humanity. When I destroy someone, it's in every way possible. When I'm done with you, you'll walk into your pry of your own free will."

In an attempt to once again gain the higher ground over Demetri, Edward glared. "Then I'll just walk in front of a human and take that choice away from you. You'll have to then."

What Edward didn't expect was the spark that entered Demetri's eyes and the grin that formed on his lips. "That certainly would have worked... until you opened your mouth like a dumb fuck." Letting go of Edward's neck, Demetri then stepped on the back of his neck when Edward hit the ground. Reaching into his inner jacket pocket, he pulled out his phone. As he began to whistle, he shot off a text and closed his phone again, dropping it back into his pocket, crouching down and tilting his head to the side. "For future reference, it's a really bad idea to let someone in on your plans that are so easy to thwart."

From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Edward's hand, and his eyes narrowed. Was that the hand that he touched Isabella with? What that the used to keep her from being able to call for help? Was it the one that pinned her in a way she had no escape? Thoughts and visuals of the picture she painted in the dungeon danced through Demetri's mind, every one stealing a little more color from them. There was a decent amount of time he spent staring at the appendage, his teeth clenched and jaw ticking.

Reaching for it, he took Edward's arm in both hands and, after a slight readjustment, snapped Edward's in two over his thigh, almost tittering at the very female like scream that came from the male vampire. Tossing the severed arm in the air, he glanced at it as it flipped, contemplation on his face. "I don't think you'll need this anytime soon." Looking back at the side of Edward's shattered face as he heard the approach of the summoned vampire, he voice was off hand and matter of fact. "And if you ever touch my mate again, no one will ever find all the pieces I break you into."

Ignoring the pitiful excuse of a growl from the face planted vampire, Demetri lifted his eyes to Chelsea, standing from his crouch and removing his foot from Edward's neck as she slowed.

Chelsea, who had no idea why she was told to meet Demetri where she was, curled her lip as she caught sight of one of the Cullens that had certainly seen better days. Crossing her arms with a raised brow, she chuckled as he spoke. "What the hell happened to him?"

Shrugging, Demetri hummed. "His face ran into my foot."

Shaking her head with a snort, Chelsea clicked her tongue. "Alright then. What can I do for you, Master Demetri?"

"If memory serves, you once told me how much you have always wanted a pet." At the look he received from her, Demetri grinned wider and waved one arm along the length of Edward's body. "I have a present for you." Through a series of gestures and looks, there was a silent conversation between the two guards, ending with a wide grin on Chelsea's face and amusement in Demetri's eyes. "I trust you'll take very good care of him."

A spark entered the female's eyes as she clasped her hands together in front of her chest, all but hopping up and down. "Oh, Master Demetri, I promise."

Demetri just nodded as he tossed her Edward's severed arm to return at her digression as he swept past her. She wasted no time gleefully manipulating Edward's loyalty bond to a near worshiping level for her, either. Knowing Chelsea as he did, that particular Cullen would be begging for death within a week. He had no doubt that in an hour's time, he would be collared and forced to crawl around on his knees like an actual dog.

With that dealt with, Demetri left Chelsea to play with her new toy and headed back to palace.

*X*

It had been about twenty minutes since he took Bella to her room, and currently, Peter was leaning over her, one knee on the mattress, a frown on his face. He had a pretty uncomfortable decision to make, and he wasn't sure how much he really wanted to be the one to make it.

Since the graft he used was a piece of her sire, he hadn't used any of his own venom to fuse it in place, because then it wouldn't come off in the future like it would otherwise. It was her sire's venom in her veins, so it should have fused to her like it was her own, but the graft wasn't taking as well as he'd hoped without extraordinary measures.

Before he went that route, there was an easier way, and he would try that one first.

Pushing himself to his feet, he didn't leave the room, just poked his head out of the door, looking up the hall to the twin that had gone back to fixing the security panel. Curling his tongue behind his teeth, he blew a short, high pitched whistle, and waiting until Alec looked his way. When he did, Peter glanced over his shoulder before looking back. "She ain't gonna be able ta wait for her fella ta get back. She needs ta eat now if that graft gonna stay in place." Pointing a finger at him, "and don't offer no bagged bullshit, neither. That shit barely take the edge off hunger, and ain't gonna do nuthin'."

Brows creasing, Alec bit into his bottom lip, thinking about whether or not there were any humans around that could be sacrificed. It was still several hours until her normal feeding time, and that was exclusively seen to by Demetri, so Alec wasn't even sure if there wasn't, where the last place her meal was picked up from.

Dropping the wire cutters in his hand, he stood. "Give me a minute and I'll see what I can do. There is a room down the hall that the Mistresses use for feeding. Let me talk to Caius, and I'll meet you there. You'll know it by the smell."

There was a look of actual disgust on Peter's face as he crossed his arms, leaning back on the door jam. "Y'all don't just take her huntin'?"

Pausing, Alec looked back over his shoulder, his own lip curled. "She's a month old."

Peter did not understand what that had to do with anything. "So? Ya mean ta tell me none a y'all can handle one baby out in the world? Ain't all y'all trained ta be the biggest and the baddest, and you gonna stand there an' tell me one infant 'round humans too much for ya? I've taken groups a changlin's ta hunt, alone, and ain't ever had a issue."

Sighing hard, Alec turned fully around and crossed his arms. "No one feeds within the walls; no exceptions."

Face losing all emotions, Peter quipped back. "If there ain't no feedin' in the walls, where the fuck all y'all eat then, huh?" When Alec remained silent, Peter grunted. "Kinda what I thought." Then a look of contemplation settled on his face. "Course, were it me and I knew one way or the other if the shit I'd been hearin' the last few days held any truth, I'd be a might less concerned 'bout Aro findin' out a townfolk went missin' than I would be a her fella findin' out I was told his lady needed help, and I didn't do it." Shrugging a shoulder, he then turned back to Bella's room. "But like I said... that just me."

One thing that had always amazed Peter, though at this point in his life it really shouldn't, was just how fast someone changed their tune when a lady's fella was brought into a conversation. This female was perfectly capable of dealing with the twin, but it wasn't until Peter brought up Demetri that he paled, which was an odd sight to see when dealing with the already pigmentally challenged. It was no secret the vampire race was absolutely a male dominated 'Boy's Club,' but it was just flat out stupid to think a female couldn't handle her business when she had to. Sure, it was the prerogative of a male to make sure she didn't have to, but that didn't in any way mean she wasn't capable of it.

The most perfect example Peter could offer someone was his own mate. Charlotte was a fucking scrapper. She didn't take shit from anyone, under any circumstances. She could absolutely hand someone their ass with a smile on her face and giggle in her voice. The point was, Peter damn near went out of his way to make sure she didn't have to. He didn't care who she pissed off, or if it was intentional on her part or not. The ship of her putting him in fights over bullshit had long since sailed, but no matter how many times he was pitted against someone because her, he would never make her fight her own battles, even knowing she would knock it off if he did. There was a part of him that enjoyed it, so there was that.

What he was positive the vampires around here had missed learning in their own pampered ass lives was, a pissed off female was a far deadlier creature than any male could possibly fathom. There was also a huge difference between a female that was mad, one that was angry, and one that was down right pissed off. They weren't all that much difference than their human selves in that respect; the difference being their ability to whoop someone poor bastard's ass are greatly improved. The problem was, everyone was so ball shriveling terrified of her _male_ to give _her_ the consideration she actually deserved. Thing about that was, she was actually the more dangerous of the two, because where Demetri was susceptible to the gifts of others, Isabella, so far, had proven she was not. Demetri could be stopped if someone was that stupid, but Isabella would keep on truckin'.

The smart fucker sure chose wisely when it came to who he wanted by his side for the rest of eternity, Peter would give him that. Then again, he also supposed that wasn't really a fair statement to make. It wasn't so much a quote 'conscience decision' on the tracker's part. An attraction wasn't an indication of anything but wanting to fuck. Two vampires could spend centuries together and part ways on a moment's notice, or hit it and quit it same day, but the desire to make her a mate was either there or it wasn't. It didn't happen over time, only a matter of hours.

A male fell exceptionally fast, and they fell hard and flat on their fucking face. If that desire was there, the male would literally move mountains to have that female on his arm, though there have been times that still wasn't enough and the female said no. It had happened to several vampires Peter knew personally. On the flipside though, he had also seen many a vampire want to be someone's mate, and that someone didn't return the sentiment.

The mark of a female vampire wasn't gonna do shit. Even in a pairing where both batted for the same team, be it male or female, there was always a more dominant partner, and one thing you weren't going to do was force that dominant partner's teeth into your neck. While that male or dominant partner would certainly take care of them for as long as they spent together, it was generally understood they weren't going to shower the same attention, affection, time, or energy on them as they would someone who carried their mark.

One could also absolutely tell the difference between attraction and desire. The girl was gorgeous, even with the permanent disfigurement at the claws of a shifter, and Peter was positive that was why Demetri was so dead set on her having constant protection for the time being. As far as a guy's dick was concerned, she was fair game because she hadn't been bitten yet. In a place where there were over a hundred males, most of which weren't mated, she was in actual danger of not just being forced into submission, but just flat out raped because _she_ only had interest in Demetri and would never give her consent to someone else.

Case in point... her ex. There was no desire for longevity on his part, and actually, Peter was almost positive that for him, it was now just about regaining his control over her, while also getting a one-up over someone else as an added bonus. While Bella was human, Edward made his word law through some fucked up means; namely scent, voice, and lure, and she was left with no choice but to follow him like a lamb to the slaughter. Humans have no defence against a vampire's bag of tricks, but now that she was a vampire as well, the lure didn't have any affect on her, allowing her to fight back because females do actually have a mating instinct.

What female vampires had was the drive to find and accept the interest of the best male they could. For them, it wasn't so much about being ready to become a mate. They could wake up from their change mated and it wouldn't bother them in the least. Every female had a different set of criteria they deemed important, and would not accept the advancement of someone that lacked the ability or drive to provide that to them.

Even if her change was under the best of circumstances, and everything went perfectly to the plan she had in her head as a human, unless she was marked and woke mated, if Edward didn't, those more likely wouldn't, meet her requirements, and she met someone who both would do it, or do it better, and was interested in doing so before they mated, the little lady would have left then, because this other male would provide her with a better life.

Once Demetri not only showed his ability to meet whatever her criteria, but also expressed his interest in her, even if by some miracle Edward had a snowball's chance in hell of regaining her favor, he lost it to someone Isabella herself deemed was just flat out better than him.

Vampires, especially females, were self-serving creatures, and no one could really fault them for wanting the best. Gold-digging, for example, was not an uncommon thing among the female vampire population. Peter had met some shallow fucking bitches in his life; concerned about nothing else than the size of a man's bank account. Chances are, they were the same way when they were human; their only criteria for becoming someone's lifelong mate, was how much that poor bastard was able to spoil her. She couldn't really be faulted for that, because she wouldn't get it if it wasn't offered to her. He was also relatively sure there were at least two females within the palace that were exactly that.

It was only speculation on Peter's part, but with this particular female, and the way her new life started, physical protection was likely pretty damn high on her list, if not the topper. In Peter's mind, she was no different than Charlotte was in that respect. Their upbringing would be vastly different, true enough, but neither one was changed for any other reason than to be a pawn, they both knew it, and they both accepted the offer of the best male they could find to protect them... and they both got very lucky. Newborn females that put their trust in an unknown, grown male, ran a risk that was astronomical.

Just like females, males were self-serving as well, with many, many physical upgrades over a female that could lead to her being literally nothing more than a slave to that male's cock. It has happened before, and it would without doubt happen again. It was absolutely not unheard of for a male to kill a sire for the female they turned just for that purpose, and after a couple of years, once he destroyed her, she was usually killed and he would move on to another. Over the course of vampire generations, newborns evolved to wake up with a skittishness to strangers, and that was just about the only reason that shit was on the decline.

If he were honest, the term 'power couple' came to Peter's mind when it came to the pair. Even only just meeting her, Peter _knew_ Bella would never be happy spending her days lounged out on a bed of fluff, gossiping like an old betty in the hair parlor, with a goblet of blood in her hand. The poor little shit would go insane if that was forced on her, and Demetri would never be able to stand back and allow that to happen. There was the very real possibility, once Isabella was older, the two would partner up in many other aspects than just their love life, because she is the offspring of a nomad, and wanderlust is a thing.

Her man's only mission in life now was to make his girl happy, and a smirk entered Peter's eyes as the voices in his head began to whisper.


	14. Chapter 14

Peter, having finally succeeded in getting Bella to properly latch onto her meal, backed off to allow her to eat. He wasn't overly impressed with the flat refusal to allow a proper hunt, but as long as she was being fed, that was all that mattered he supposed. It would be a long fucking year, but eventually, if no one else was interested in taking the girl hunting, he sure as fuck would.

Then again, on the other hand, being her first time not being handfed, he supposed a little practice wouldn't hurt anything. It had taken several tries to accomplish getting her teeth in the right spot, her having gotten so used to her jaw being out of alignment. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. She could have ripped his throat apart like a freshly woken baby, and any feeding that ended with a full belly and no need of a deep scrub was a win.

A lot can be learned by watching a newborn eat, and the most prominent one was that, regardless of the ridiculous means, she was very well fed. She was also one hell of a slow eater. Any other one month old would have been done in a matter of a couple of minutes, but this one was taking her damn time. Peter knew there was a laundry list of reasons why, and it wasn't like he had anything else to do at the moment. It just struck him as odd. It wasn't a bad thing or anything like that, just different. All the experience with newborns in the world wouldn't reveal everything there was to know about them, and it now seemed to him he wasn't too old to learn new things.

He just didn't particularly care for kids. He was good with them these days, but that didn't mean he liked them.

His life in the army had all but turned him off of ever being a daddy again, and he didn't really want to play the part of step-daddy, either. He hadn't sired any offspring since he and Charlotte left Northern Mexico, and that was for a damn good reason. He didn't know any other way to raise an infant than what he had been taught over a century ago. He didn't have the slightest idea when he showed up in Italy he was going to become partly responsible for one, and he wasn't sure if he did know, he still would have personally shown up and not sent someone else.

Well, a point couldn't get anymore moot than this one since it already happened, and the girl seemed to be a doll. It could certainly have been worse, but he had a feeling it wouldn't stay sunshine and roses when dealing with her for much longer.

He felt the approach and knew when he wasn't alone with the girl anymore, but Peter took a moment to get settled on the wall by the door before he addressed the lady's fella, that returned way sooner than thought. "Mostly, everythin' went as good as it coulda. Wouldn't a fed her, but the graft wasn't takin' like it should, and wasn't supposed ta be back yet. It was either this or burn the skin in place with my venom like I did the bone, but then it wouldn't come off. Figured this was the betta idea."

Demetri, crossing his arms and leaning on the door jam, he laid his head against it as he watched Bella. Not moving his eyes from her, he responded to Peter. "And in a year from now, I'll thank you for it." Taking in a deep breath through his nose, he let it out slowly, a sigh in his tone. "It is her first time feeding herself."

Even though he knew that, it didn't stop Peter's nose from wrinkling or his face from pinching. "Sorry I took that from ya." Seeing him shrug, Peter cleared his throat. "She did 'ight." Turning his head to look at Demetri, who had cut his eyes to him, Peter was left to shrug. "Had a little issue with keepin' the wound sealed when she took her teeth out the skin, but otha than that, she did 'ight."

Since that was where every infant got hung up when it came to feeding, Demetri just nodded once and returned his eyes to his soon to be mate. The way she was positioned certainly left something to be desired on his part, but it wasn't uncommon for a female to straddle their meal. He asked why once, and apparently, according to them, it was just more comfortable; especially when the human was taller than them.

Bella, who was oblivious to her surroundings, hadn't noticed Demetri was present. When she released the human's neck, he wasn't dead. She had actually eaten very little. She wasn't hungry and was only eating because she was told she had to because her face still hurt something awful. She could feel her cheek begin burning more as the skin Peter put there hissed as it finished fusing to her own. It was odd. It wasn't hers, but it didn't feel like it was out of place. It didn't add any extra weight, and if she didn't know it was there, she wouldn't know it was there.

Rearing herself to sit up, she placed her hands on the human's chest and just looked down at him. He was struggling to stay awake, his heart beating far too slow for that to be a fight he was going to win. Tapping her finger on his sternum, her face turned thoughtful. What would happen to him if she didn't finish draining him? Would he become a vampire? Would Peter snap his neck to stop that from happening? Would he finish her meal because she sure as fuck wasn't going to?

In the end, it didn't matter. She caught both vampires behind her off guard when she grabbed the human by the face with one hand, leaned over him with her other hand on the floor, and after picking his head up, she slammed the back of his head as hard she could back onto the floor, her hand crushing the skull and smashing the brain. She watched with unfeeling eyes as what was inside a human skull spilled out onto the concrete, pooling around the flattened head.

Peter, who's eyes went wide, snapped his head to look at Demetri, who did a better job at covering his shock. Clearing his throat, Peter returned his attention to the baby. "Somethin' wrong, Little Darlin'?"

Flopping back down on the body, Bella propped herself up with an elbow in the human's throat, her chin in her palm. Shaking her head, she began to swirl her finger around the blood, doodling for lack of a better term. "No."

Unable to bite it back, Peter snorted. "Looks like it." Glancing at Demetri, he grunted at the ceiling when the tacker gave no indication he was going to reveal himself just yet. Glaring slightly, Peter pushed himself off the wall, and slowly made his way into the room, but making sure he gave the newborn a wide enough berth so she didn't attack. She could bite now, and he wasn't in the mood to add to his already impressive collection. Crouching down a few feet away from the top of the human's crushed head, he draped his hands over his thighs and cocked his head to the side. "What's the matta, Dolly?"

Not looking up from the pattern in the puddle of blood and brains she was playing with, Bella did her best to shrug, but really, it was little more than a popped shoulder and slightly tilting her head. She didn't know what was wrong. She didn't even know if there was something wrong. She felt like there might be, but she had zero idea if there was actually anything she could do about it.

Still not stopping as she drew in the crimson liquid, she sighed and flicked her eyes to Peter's, dropping them nearly right away at the expectant look in his own eyes. Licking her lips, she ran ther tongue along her teeth before letting out a hard breath. "He's going to change his mind, you know."

Jolting at the quiet but matter of fact statement, Peter bulked. "Who gonna do what now?" Lip curling in the corner, he stared at the girl, waiting for her to say something else, but she didn't. She did stop playing with her food, though. She just folded her arms, and finished laying down on a corpse, her legs stretching out and setting her chin on her arms. When she continued to remain quiet, he took a shot in the dark. "You talkin' 'bout Demetri?"

Letting a short breath out of her nose, Bella gave a sharp, shallow nod. "Why wouldn't he? I mean..."

Peter cut her off. "Cause it just don't work like that. His decision all but written in stone at this point."

Lowering her eyes again, she turned her head to the side, lying on her scarred cheek, a frown in her lips. "He could do better."

"And what makes ya think that?" Once again seeing her half shrug, Peter played with his tongue before shifting his position, sitting down with one knee bent with his foot on the ground while the other bent and settled on the floor. Clasping his hands on his shin, he cocked his head head. "I'ma take a shot in the dark here, but you worried 'bout them scars, aintcha?" There was a single, slow nod from the newborn and he rolled his eyes. "We all got scars, Sweet Pea." Dipping his head, he caught her eyes. "You ain't special."

When she gave him a pissy ass look, he gave a sharp growl as he leaned to this side, and pulled his wallet out of his pocket with an 'ight'. Opening it, he pulled out a picture and held it out to her, pulling it back when she reached for it with her blood covered hand, and didn't represent it until she reached with the less morbid hand.

Pushing herself to sit up once again, she looked at what she was handed, and came face to image with the more beautiful blonde she had ever seen. She was leagues hotter than Rosalie on the vain bitch's best day, and had a smile that would make anyone consider switching home teams. Lifting her eyes from the picture, she looked at Peter. "Is this Charlotte?"

Nodding with a 'mmhmm', Peter dropped his forearm over his bent knee. "That my ol' lady. Now..." dropping his wallet to the ground, safe from the red puddle, he then grabbed the waist of his shirt and pulled it over his head, showing off the fact he was literally covered from neck to belt with all kinds of different scars. There were slash marks, bite marks, and actual divots in his skin that Bella did not want to ask how they happened.

Holding his arms out to the side, he cocked a brow. "And there a hundred more ya can't see cause I ain't takin' my pants off. My question for ya though, is... if scars such a deal breaker, what my lady see in me?"

Hunching back slightly, there was a very uncomfortable lit in Bella's voice. "I have no idea."

A deep chuckle rumbled in Peter's throat as he pulled his shirt back on. "Scary sumbitch now, ain't I?" When he saw her hold up two fingers close together, he smirked. "Didn't scare ya two minutes ago, though, so... are scars really that big a deal?"

Bella took a moment to think about that as she flicked her eyes back and forth between Peter and the picture in her fingers. Biting into her lip, she made a noise in the back of her throat as she held the picture of Charlotte out for him to take back. "What does she see in you?"

To her surprise, Peter shrugged as he took his picture back. "Fuck if I know. She told me it cause I make her laugh, but with as often as I piss 'er off? I have my doubts." As he put the picture away and returned his wallet to his pocket, he shifted his eyes to the vampire of topic who finally decided to join them. "My point, Little Lady," looking back at her, "is scars don't define us. The say where we been, but they ain't got shit ta do with where we go. They also ain't always gonna be so bad. They gonna heal up some. 'Sides, that fella eva once give ya any indication he care they there?" When she shook her head, he leaned closer to her, and lowered his voice. "Then why you think he gonna change his mind?"

Bella licked her lips and cleared her throat, surprising both males when it turned out she actually had an answer to that. "Athenodora and Sulpicia."

It was then Demetri revealed himself to her, and it was with annoyance in his voice. "Those two have no place to say shit about anything, especially when that something has to do with me."

Cringing so hard her shoulders covered her ears, Bella glanced up at Demetri through slitted eyes. "How much of that did you hear?" When he looked at her with a raised brow, she sighed. "All of it... of course." Thinking she could save herself, she tried to change the subject, not realizing before the words were out how much of a double meaning they held at the moment. "I need to talk to you about something."

A grin appeared on Demetri's lip as his eyes shined slightly. "I would certainly say so, Neos."

Peter, who was taken over by a wave of awkward, climbed to his feet and brushed off the ass of his jeans. "Well, I'll leave ya to it."

Demetri didn't take his eyes off Bella's as he spoke to the retreating vampire. "You are allowed wherever your feet may take you, just stay on the grounds until sunset." Reaching into his outer jacket pocket, he grabbed the phone that was inside and tossed it across the room. "I'll call if you become needed."

Catching the device, Peter looked back as Demetri crouched next to his female, his brows creased. "I got my own phone."

As he laced his fingers together between his knees, Demetri looked at him with a raised brow. "On you?" Looking back at the ceiling when Peter responded with a 'well, no', Demetri hummed. "Then it would seem you do not, in fact," looking back at him, "have your own phone." Eyes hardening, there was a darker tone to the tracker's voice. "Keep it on you, and do not ignore it if it rings."

Bella, unable to help it, snorted hard when Peter snarked. "Should I set up the voicemail ta say 'this Demetri's bitch. Leave ya less important shit message afta the beep'?"

Grin morphing into a smirk, Demetri flashed his teeth. "Certainly has a ring to it, doesn't, Captain?"

Sighing hard with a shake of his head, Peter turned again to the leave the room, speaking under his breath. "Really gotta learn ta keep my damn mouth shut."

There was a very cold feeling in Bella's bone when she realized she was on her own with Demetri. She wasn't scared so much as she was worried, and she wasn't sure she wanted to ever continue the conversation she hadn't known more than Peter was privy to. At no point since she realized otherwise had he looked upset; at least not with her. He looked more than a little annoyed when he first showed up and the bit about Dora and Pica having something to say about them, but now? There was nothing about him to suggest she should be worried. That didn't stop her from looking away from his piercing gaze, though.

His voice leveled out, losing the evil sounding glee from when he was talking to Peter, lowering into the same soothing tone she was beginning to realize was the only way he ever really spoke to her. "Do I make you nervous, Neos?"

To the tracker's surprise, Bella actually put a moment of real thought into her answer. Her face pinched and her eyes crinkled, and after a moment, slowly shook her head. "No..." Turning to look at him, her features softened. "I don't think so. I mean there are times sure, but, not usually." Eyes narrowing, her face darkened as her lips pressed into a hard line as she shook her head header, looking down at the body she still sat on, and crossed her arms. "And it's so..."

She didn't trail off looking for Demetri to figure out what she was trying to say. She trailed off so she could figure it out for herself. Sure, she was kind of shy, and at times pretty fucking awkward, when she was human, but she never actually felt inferior before moving to Forks. It was a place she hadn't been to in more than half her life, with people that were all up in her ass for no reason other than because she was new. Every day was like feeding time at the zoo when she stepped outside, and if that wasn't bad enough... stupid hot vampires had to be there, and one of them had to take an interest in her because of her blood, making every last insecurity she had ten times more noticeable.

Now, here she was, a stupid hot vampire herself... with the most ugly deformity she had never seen on any particular body in her life; a deformity she wouldn't have if not for Carlisle. The moment the name popped into her head, she growled in deep in her chest as she finally stood from the corpse. Before crossing her arms, she scratched at the graze marks on her chest with her blood covered hand, and began to pace, her voice carrying her rising anger.

"And its so fucking infuriating, because boys shouldn't make me nervous. There was a time when I didn't feel like I was being done a favor when someone showed me attention. There was a time when I looked in the mirror and liked what I saw. Long before the wolf got ahold of me, even before the Cullens ever came into my life, I was happy with who I was, and I hate them all for taking that away from me. I hate they made feel so inferior in every fucking way possible. Sure, that might be unfair, but it wasn't like they didn't keep doing it, or at times go out of their way to enforce that feeling. I didn't dress right. I didn't act right. I didn't try hard enough to fit in with a hoard of vampires.

"Any simple, and understandable, time my humanity showed, I was laughed at, or ridiculed or... something was done to point out the fact I tripped, or stubbed my toe, or heaven forbid I fucking farted. So sorry I had body parts that sometimes very enthusiastically decided to remind everyone they still worked. Have you ever had a stomach ache that was nearly incapacitating because food is all but forced down your throat because 'Oh, my God, we have a pet and it has to eat and if it doesn't we can guilt the little bitch into it because cooking isn't something we get to fucking do'!"

During her tirade, Demetri remained in place, listening to her rant without interruption. Clearly, there was overlap between her humanity and her vampirism that needed to be worked out, and she was the only one that could really do that. He didn't answer her rhetorical question, because it wasn't a question. It was a pissed off statement that happened to not come across as one. It was also during that last statement her temper got the better of her and she snagged the dead human by the shirt and hurled that poor bastard across the room, hitting the far wall with an actual splat.

She stood there, her breaths coming out in heaving fashion, her shoulders rising and falling from the force. Standing from his crouched position, Demetri slowly made his way to her, settling his hands on her hips as he came to stand behind her. Lowering his head, he nuzzled his nose against her temple. "What is it you want, Psihi Mou?"

Turning her head away, Bella closed her eyes and swallowed hard. She didn't know. She could barely think things through at the moment and didn't want to claim to want something she didn't. Licking her lips, she relayed that, with a slight quiver in her voice. "I don't know, but I hate him. I hate him so fucking much."

It didn't escape Demetri's notice that she said 'him' and not 'them'. Releasing her hip with one hand, he reached across her chest, and turned her head to face him with his fingertips. Her eyes were glazed over and black, her lips pressed together and turned down in the corners. The level of upset he could clearly see would suggest she was referring to one of the two that killed her sire, but common sense told him she was talking about someone else. His eyes turning to liquid, his voice didn't lower, but it did get deeper. "Which one?"

Bella, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth, looked up at the ceiling for only a moment before she looked back at Demetri's eyes. "Carlisle. He allowed everything that happened, even encouraged it at times. He single handedly facilitated the worst thing that ever happened to me. I wouldn't be like this if it wasn't for him. The past few weeks wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for him."

Clicking his tongue, Demetri sighed quietly. "You would have become a vampire eventually, Neos."

Running her still blood hand under her nose, Bella cleared her throat. "True, but I was referring to the fact I wouldn't have come face to claws with a wolf if not for him."

Lowering her eyes, Bella's brows creased and she turned her body to face Demetri's. Her fingers settled against his lower abdomen, and she looked straight ahead at his chest as she continued to do her best to order her thoughts. All she could really do, though, was hope what she was able to get out was expressed properly. "I don't..." pausing to sighed, she shook her head slightly. "I don't care. Jasper, Emmett, Alice... I don't care they killed James anymore. I'll get used to the empty feeling at some point, and it'll go away eventually. So, I just don't care, anymore."

Indulgence entered Demetri's eyes as he adjusted his hold on her, lacing his fingers together behind Bella's back, his head tilting slightly to the side. "You do, too."

Balling her hands into fists, she barely stopped herself from slamming them both as hard as she could against Demetri's chest. There was still force upon impact, but not a lot. "Okay, I do, but... I just..." lifting her eyes to Demetri's, she looked at him through her lashes. "I want him to suffer. I want him to suffer more than I want the rest to die. I want him to suffer more than I want pretty much anything right now." Demetri watched as her eyes hardened, her features sliding into a clear expression of pure hate. "I want to return every favor he's ever done for me." Reaching up with one hand, her singles settled into the groves in her face. "Starting with the one that led to this."

Dipping his head, Demetri set his forehead against Bella's, a hum in his throat as he took her hand from her face and laced his fingers with hers. "Any ideas on how you want that to happen?"

Biting into the corner of her bottom, lip, there was a light in the back of her eyes. "I'm still partial to that bite in the ass, honestly. Let's see just how close those fuckers are by how many jump to help heal _that_ injury." Then she herself hummed as her tongue poked out from behind slightly parted lips as they turned up into a smirk that went straight to Demetri's dick. "Or refuse to help."

Seeing a spark ignite in the back of her eyes, Demetri chuckled out a hum as he leaned into her, his lips barely grazing hers as he spoke. "Think on it, finalize it, and I will it happen."

Once again, as what always happened when Demetri was in such close proximity, Bella's head began to swim. Voice going breathless, her lips quivered against his. "Promise?"

His lips gliding along hers, Demetri slowly slowly shook his head. "I don't make promises, Agapi Mou, but for you? I swear it." Sealing his lips against hers, he was barely able to control himself from allowing things to get too heated between them. That would happen soon enough, but there was something else that needed seen to first.

When Demetri broke the kiss off, Bella actually licked his flavor from her lips, a hum in her throat. "I'll take it."

Butting his nose to hers, he chuckled. "Good." Keeping her held close to his chest, he pulled back further, looking down at her with a tender expression. "Now, what is this nonsense about changing my mind?"

Blowing out a breath through puckered lips to try and expel some of the fog over her brain, Bella then shook her head. "I don't know. It was something I heard when Peter first brought me in here that I guess he didn't, though I can't begin to understand why he wouldn't."

Clicking his tongue twice, Demetri lifted a shoulder. "I'm not surprised you can hear things he can't. It is my understanding your sire was a tracker of sorts; even with as... ehm... juvenile as his talents may have been. Tracking is a surprisingly unique trait among our kind. It's the only talent passed down directly through venomlines.

"All gifted sires will produce a gifted newborn, and those gifts will vary, but only a tacker can produce another tracker because it's an evolution of senses. Generally speaking, it's hardly ever... trained to be more than just heightened hearing and sharper eyes. It's all I had when I first woke up. I can do what I can now because my ability to track was developed as I grew up. I practiced, and I got better at it. My sire was like yours in the talent department, but Amun's was different in how his worked. No two are the same. Amun's was geared more toward his hearing while I believe James' was more scent based after hearing what I have.

"Better overall senses are a trademark of trackers; we all have them, but the way we use them, or grow them, define our specific, personal tracking ability. It's all in how its nurtured as a newborn when you're learning to control your senses. It's merely another delayed manifestation of your sire since you are becoming healthier by the day."

Well, to Bella, it sort of made sense. She had been told enough times that newborns take after their sire for nothing to really surprise her when it came to things she shared with James. There were things she didn't care for, but she supposed a direct inheritance wasn't something that should ever have been out of the equation. Still, she frowned. "But... this whole no mindfuck shit I got going on... what's with that if I inherited James' tracking gift?"

Nose wrinkling, his first response was a grunt. "Technically speaking, tracking isn't a gift, it's an ability, a talent. And, just like any talent, you can get better at it with practice, and it can get rusty if you don't do it. It's not like what the twins can do, for example. Vampire 'gifts' are what they are. They don't grow, and they don't change. Some are more powerful than others, sure, but they all have their limits. The shield of your mind can be one of three things, honestly. It can be a gift of its own, it can have to do with tracking, or..."

Blinking, Bella cut him off without thinking. "So two gifts?"

Sighing hard, Demetri scratched between his eyes. "No, Neos, you're not listening. Neither or is a secondary gift. I will say this again, Isabella, tracking isn't a gift. It is a generational evolution unique to genetic venomlines. Vampires do evolve, and just like humans, we do it through our offspring. It just doesn't take as many generations for us compared to humans, because other than a few random places around the world, it is a very long time between children and grandkids. It could be centuries between them, which, as it turns out, is just about how long a human evolutionary trait takes to manifest. However, what I was saying a moment ago is, there is a third thing can explain your mental protection." Waiting to make sure she would stay quiet, Demetri hummed. "There could be a vampire somewhere in your human heritage."

Eyes going wide, Bella ripped herself from Demetri's hold, her jaw dropping open. She was so shocked, she didn't even take a moment to bask in the fact her mouth opened that wide without either pain or the sound of stone on stone assaulting her ears. Hands clasping and fingers lacing in front of her chest, she whimpered. "I'm sorry... What?"

A grin pulled at the corner of Demetri's lips, eyes going distant in memory. "Ah... The Dark Ages. Such an interesting time for vampire kind." Eyes coming back into focus, Demetri crossed his arms. "Back before we became myth and legend, male vampires would carry on with female humans, and believe it or not... those humans would become pregnant, birthing a hybrid. Those little bastards were nearly impossible to find, because they have as many human traits as vampire, including blood, a heartbeat, and a marked lack of diamond skin. Those that weren't discovered, went on to have children of their own. Down, down, down their bloodlines, the venom they were born with would become so diluted, it could no longer be detected, though still there, because you cannot destroy anything by half. There are many that believe that is how a human is reborn with a gift to an ungifted sire; they are a direct descendant of a vampire, with trace amounts of venom in their veins, that is... enhanced for lack of a better term, when the human goes through their change."

Putting her hands up as she took a few steps back, Bella's voice carried a chuckle that was anything but amused. "Wait, wait, wait... you're telling me I might be related to a vampire... that could still be alive?"

Demetri just shrugged again. "It's certainly possible, yes. The only way to know for sure is to trace your ancestry back several hundred years and into a time where recordings such as that were shit if kept at all. Hybrids have a very impressive lifespan, but they do not live forever, and it shortens with every new generation as the venom dilutes more. To my knowledge, one hasn't been born in seven hundred years or better."

Eyes shifting quickly back and forth, Bella gave an uncomfortable clearing of her throat. "Could we..."

Chuckling in his throat as she trailed off, Demetri shook his head. "Very distantly, perhaps, but since I've never sired anyone, and I don't play with my food, a direct relation is impossible." When she cringed, he snorted. "Neos, there are only so many original bloodlines for humans, and even fewer original venomlines for vampires. Most everyone is related somehow. To think otherwise is... well, you are smarter than that." Then he shrugged. "However, if it makes you feel better, my entire human lineage still resides in Karpathos. So, unless you're of Greek descent, there is no relative connection between us, and considering the fact humans are changed to be a mate, vampire lineage doesn't matter because we just don't give a shit."

Bella felt like she was going to throw up. Her hand came up and covered her mouth. "So, if Edward and I would have... I could have..."

There was a sharp nod from Demetri. "It's one of reasons why vampires are no longer allowed to mingle with humans in such a way. Hybrids are an _unbelievable_ pain in the ass. I already told you they are nearly impossible to find, but they also don't grow at the same rate as a human. Imagine having a newborn one day, and two weeks later, having a toddler. It would certainly draw unnecessary attention, so in this day and age, a hybrid would be destroyed without second thought, as would the parents... if the mother survived long enough."

Gulping hard, Bella's back hit the wall. "If?"

Deciding to spare her the very gory details of how a hybrid got out of their mother's womb, he just nodded. "If." Then, with a tilt of his head, he redirected the conversation back to the one he heard her have with Peter. "Now, back to the original topic of conversation, you were getting ready to tell me what it was you heard when you came in here."

Readjusting her position on the wall, she crossed her arms and ankles, shaking her head slightly with a sigh. "I heard them say that, uh, maybe they misread the situation and, um," pausing to scratch her ear, she cleared the lump that formed in her throat. "Maybe you were reevaluating your options."

Rolling his eyes so hard he was pretty sure he caught a glimpse of his brain, Demetri's head dropped back on his shoulder. "Nosey fucking..." Letting out a hard sigh, he shook his head as he looked Isabella dead in the eyes, taking measured steps to close the distance she put between them. "Ridiculous. I had thought I made things clear enough before, but if I haven't, allow me to make this crystal clear for you now, My Dearest."

When he reached Isabella, he placed his hands on either side of her on the wall, trapping her in place. Bending down to her level, he locked their eyes. "Our eternity has already begun, Psihi Mou. It started before you ever left the woods of the Olympic Peninsula. The only thing stopping me from sinking my teeth into your neck is I had thought you might want to enjoy it. Bites hurt, every time, but if properly distracted, it's not quite as bad. If you prefer to wait until you feel better, that's fine. However, if the words of others that pertain to us upset you so, and lead you to question my already expressed intent to make you mine, I'll do it. right. now. The how or when of you wearing my mark does not matter to me in the least. That is wholly up to you, but make no mistake, you will bare it eventually."

Bella stood frozen, burning in his smoldering gaze. Never could she remember being looked at by anyone like she was being looked at by him right at that moment. He was looking at her a fat kid looked at cake, or to put a more romantic spin on things, like she hung the damn stars in the sky. His words, though, sent the butterflies in her stomach into a frenzy, and she actually giggled. Not the first time he had done that to her, but this was a different noise, and was accompanied with a goofy looking grin on her face. "Gotta mark your territory, huh?"

There was no remorse in his eyes as he leaned closer to her, the tip of his nose touching hers. "Perclórico." Pulling back only enough for his eyes to focus, Demetri grinned. "My choice was made, no matter what two line-crossing, gossiping, spoiled brats have to say about it. Either right here or in my bed as you scream my name to Zeus himself, I don't care. The end result will still be the same; you, being mine, on my arm, for eternity." Moving his hand from the wall, he brushed Bella's hair over her shoulder, exposing her neck as he looked her in the eyes and lowered his voice. "All you have to do is say when."

Once again overtaken by the same surprise she was the last time her mouth went completely dry for the face she still has to spit out venom she couldn't swallow, Bella licked her lips as she tried to push her voice through the desert she called a throat. "I uh... I get to choose?"

Tilting his head to the side, Demetri's voice stayed just as quiet. "Did you think otherwise?" When her shoulder popped slightly under his hand, he hummed. "I'm not in the business of forcing any part of myself on a female. I kill those that do. It is with your permission, or not at all. If you don't care, I'll do it now. If you do, I will not. After two thousand years, another few weeks certainly won't make any difference to me."

She vaguely recalled hearing how long Demeri had been alive, but hearing it put like that, her mind took it in a different direction. Her smile grew slightly, and she giggled again. "You look good for you age."

Chuckling in his throat, he changed his position, propping himself on his forearm above her head and moving his hand that was against her neck to settle on her hip. "Do I?"

Nodding slightly with a 'nnhnn', Bella slipped her arms behind her, her palms on the wall. She looked up at him with a look of contemplation on her face as she tilted her head to the side. "What would have happened if we met and I was mated to Edward?"

There was no thought in his answer, or change of his voice. "I would have killed him." Thumb slipping under the hem of her shirt, his brushed it against her skin as he glanced up for a moment in thought. "A male" looking back at her, "will mourn his mate for the rest of his life, often shutting down and barely function without her. Females will simply look for another. They seek to be taken care of based on a set of criteria only known to them. Even mated, if their male comes up short, or doesn't provide for her in the way she wants to be provided for, she'll kill that male her damn self, with very little care for her own safety, to free herself from whatever it is she doesn't like. Many would rather be dead than belong to a male that lacks in certain areas."

Brows creasing, Bella scoffed slightly. "So, I care to the point of dying about the death of my sire, but I wouldn't give two shits about taking up with the man that killed my vampire husband?"

Clicking his tongue, Demetri nodded once. "Pretty much, and here is why. If I was able to kill your male, it would have shown you two things. The first being the more obvious, he was a piss poor protector, and I'm better at it. The other is, it would have shown you my level of desire to have you as mine. When it comes to that one, believe it or not, it's not as creepy as it sounds."

Brow sliding behind her bangs, Bella snorted. "Are you sure about that?"

Demetri just rolled his eyes. "Yes. The only reason there is to kill a mated male is because the other wants their mate for their own. The level of dedication it would take to prove to her he was worthy of her is insurmountable, because females know they are treasures, and they themselves decide their worth. It is not decided for them. They are the ones that decide if a male is worth her time, and he had to prove it, more so if she was very well taken care of by the now dead male. He not only has to meet those previous standards, but has to surpass them, every day, for the rest of his life. If even once he fails, well... he wasn't any better than the one that died. The lengths a male will go to for the one he loves is..." brows creasing, he grunted. "almost degrading."

Tapping his fingers on the wall, he picked his head up slightly. "Which reminds me... an hour ago, down in the catacombs, you made a comment about how I could have just told you no."

Having just happened, Bella nodded to him. "Yeah, and you said there would be a conversation about that."

"Yes I did, this is where it starts... no."

Jerking back and cracking her head on the wall in the process, Bella scoffed a grunt. "That's not even an actual sentence, so I hardly call it a conversation."

With a grin, Demetri winked. "It's the short version." Kicking his foot up on his toes, he let out a breath from his nose. "The longer version is no, I can't. I have this... all consuming desire to give you whatever you want. It is a driving _need_ to provide you your every desire. It comes from a very selfish place, honestly. I refuse to be bested by anyone. Should I deny you your wishes, and it's something you have decided you truly want, you will find someone to provide it to you. What happens then? Another male has not only stepped on my toes, but proven to you he is willing to provide things to you I am not, and that is certainly something I am not willing to tolerate."

Pausing a moment, he returned the hand that was on her hip and cupped her cheek, his eyes taking on a look that captured more of her attention than she thought she still had to give. "This is the part you need to pay very close attention to because everything else is completely irrelevant. I will never deny you anything. I will give you whatever it is you want at anytime, no questions asked. If you request it, it will be done as close to your specification as I am capable of making it. With that being said, when it comes to certain topics of conversation between us, you need to choose your words very wisely."

The double meaning to his last statement stroked Bella's mind for a moment before a lightbulb went off. "That's why you asked if I had any ideas."

Stroking her cheek with his thumb, Demetri lowered his voice. "They did you very wrong. It's only fair you get to be the one to decide how they pay for that."

If Bella was able to cry, she would have teared up. Instead, she let out an emotion filled chuckle. "We really do find compliments in the strangest shit. That was probably the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me."

Dipping his head, Demetri set his forehead against hers, his voice going so quiet, even she had to strain to hear him. "I will never tell you no, and I have not been given the nickname of Satan's Favorite Demon for no reason. I earned it. I'm not nice, so until you are capable of dealing with them on your own, it is my undying pleasure to do it for you."

How Bella still had a physical form, she had no idea. Honestly, she felt like she was made of goo and she slipped her arms around Demetri's neck to keep her up when her knees shook under the weight of her melting insides. Her male responded by grabbing her by the back of her thighs, hoisting her feet off the ground, and pressing his body against her to hold her in place against the wall, Bella wasting no time hooking her legs behind his back. Licking her lips, she then sank her teeth into her bottom lip as she looked Demetri in his pitch black eyes. Taking a shuddering breath, her voice actually shook with a heavy desire. "What do you want?"

Demetri had never faced such an impossible internal fight before. It took every ounce of control he possessed, and then some, to keep his teeth to himself. "What I want doesn't matter."

Lacing her fingers together behind Demetri's head, she tightened her grip on herself so much there was actual pain, and it was the only thing keeping her focused at the moment. "It does to me. I'm not sure I'm ready to be introduced to Zeus, but I am ready to be yours."

That same deep, sinister sounding chuckle that never failed to set Bella's venom on fire sounded in the room, causing her to shiver. "You already are."

The only thing Bella was able to get out through useless gasp and heaving pants was a single word that changed everything for both of them. "Officially."

There was black. There was onyx. Then, there was the depth of endless darkness Demetri called eyes boring into the red rubies of his charge's. They remained locked for an immeasurable moment, time freezing in place like it was taking a snapshot to always member it. It came to an end when he used his nose to turn her head to the side, and Bella didn't even recognize his voice when he spoke, the tenor itself changing to something so deep, she wasn't sure for a moment it was actually coming out of his mouth.

His spoke against her flesh as he trailed his lips down the side of her neck. "Deep breath, My Love... because this is going to hurt."

There was no time to prepare for the feeling of Demetri's teeth breaking her skin, but nothing came out when she tried to scream. She had been changed into a vampire. She had been literally sliced open by a shifter. She had been burned back together. All of that had happened over the course of a month.

She would rather deal with every last one of those encounters at the same fucking time than feel the white hot burning of being bitten in the neck and have foreign venom introduced directly into her fucking veins. She didn't shake, she convulsed as wave after wave washed over her. Her legs tightened around Demetri's hips, her nails digging into the back of his neck. Everything she was doing was designed to pull a man closer, but honestly, it was completely involuntary on her part.

Three seconds later, Demetri reopened his mouth, pulling his teeth from their place in his mate's skin. leaving behind his scent. One long, lavious lick with the flat of his tongue sealed the holes closed, trapping his venom inside. Pulling his face from her neck, he then licked his lips as he looked at the face of his female as she tried to catch an unneeded breath. With her being only a few weeks into her vampiric life, she still had her own blood, and Demetri gave an appreciative hum in his throat as he removed the few escaped drops from his lips. "Your sire was a lucky vampire, Sýntrofos, because you were delicious."

Opening her own black eyes, Bella looked at him with an indignant expression. "Thank you."

Grinning, he leaned in, butting his nose against her. "Don't look at me like that." Capturing her lips with his, he broke up off just as fast, but remained close. "I told you it would hurt."

She couldn't deny that; he had... twice. Still, even as the fire in her neck began to reseed, she looked at him with a full on pout. "So?"

Grinning at her, he nipped her bottom lip. "At least my bite only hurts once."


	15. Chapter 15

Pacing the length of the hallway, Bella had one arm crossed over her chest, the nail of her thumb between her teeth. There was a rock in her gut, and she was finding herself curious if she was still actually capable of throwing up. Her skin was crawling, and it was such an off putting feeling, she kept changing her mind midstep.

Why she decided to do this by herself, she didn't know. She was pretty sure if she asked Demetri would have come with her, but for whatever reason, she hadn't, and now here she was, pacing the hall of the catacombs, trying to clamp down her overwhelming fear and anger.

Most of the twenty-seven hours since Demetri bit her had been spent with Peter, Demetri and Felix being sent to deal with something going on in Rome, and over that time, she had actually figured out which way the pendulum Demetri had spoken about swung when it came to the gruff bastard. While going back and forth with Caius on his behalf was because she felt she owed him, ultimately, she decided she did actually liked the dick.

She also decided she wanted to do something for him. It wouldn't be on par with what he did for her, but she hoped he liked it nonetheless. She had very quickly learned she couldn't pull the kind of shit with him she could with basically every other person that resided in the palace, but she really did hope she could keep this as much of a surprise as possible.

But to do so, it meant she had to talk to Jasper.

She couldn't figure out exactly what her problem was, either. He was behind an unbreakable set of bars. She was completely safe from him, so why was she so terrified to go in there? Every time she got within ten feet of the door, her stomach clenched, threatening to reintroduce her to her last meal, and so far, she wasn't able to squash her emotions enough to get any closer.

Pausing in her pacing, she looked at the metal door that was currently about twenty feet away, her eyes crinkled in the corners, her nail still between her teeth. A small whine slipped past her lips and she snapped away from the sight, her shoulders hunching. This was stupid, she knew it was, but that didn't make it easy. It honestly almost made it harder.

On the verge of a full on anxiety attack, Bella leaned against the wall, dropping her head back, and closing her eyes. Her heart didn't even beat, but it felt like it was about to explode. She had been doing well enough with knowing they were within as close of proximity as they were, but now that she was so close, and alone, she was beginning to completely question her mentality.

She had no idea how long she stood there, begging her body to listen to her and being completely ignored, but when she opened her eyes and lowered them, she saw Caius leaning against the opposite wall, his arms crossed and looking all the world like he didn't have a care in it. His face was level, his eyes clear while Bella was shaking and damn near foaming at the mouth.

He merely waited her out, knowing she would either bolt like she was fighting not to do, or she would find the inner strength she was desperate for. This was, quite possibly, the hardest part of a newborn growing up. They couldn't always run and hide behind their sire. The would eventually have to stand on their own and, regardless of this newborn's mating to, arguably, the most dangerous vampire on the planet, she would be no different. She would still have to stand for herself, and the sooner she tried, the better help that could be offered to her as time continued.

Bella gulped down as much venom as she could, but she still spat out quite a bit before she spoke. "I can't do it."

There was a hum on the air, Caius' head tilting slightly to the side. "Why do we not start with what it was you were attempting to do, and go from there."

Bella was just as quick to shake her head. "It doesn't matter."

A brow slowly slid up Caius' forehead. "Oh? And why is that? Because it's hard?" When she whimpered, he licked his lips. "Stella, you are an infant standing twenty feet from those that killed your sire. You would not have put yourself through what you have for the last hour if you thought it didn't matter. Clearly, it _matters_ a great deal, so tell me what it is, and let me help you."

Ringing her fingers, Bella cut her eyes to the end of the hall, her voice wavering. "I wanted to talk to Jasper." Returning her eyes to Caius when he simply said 'about', she licked her lips and swallowed hard. "I want to do something for Peter, but the only way to do it is to talk to Jasper."

Caius remained silent as he regarded her for a long moment. Clearly, if she was down here, alone, for as long as she was, she was completely dedicated to whatever the cause was she took up for her chosen bodyguard, and if he wasn't with her, she didn't want him to know she was doing it. The problem, from what he could see, didn't fully lie in her emotions, but also the added complication of her lack of control.

So, with that in mind, he gave her more control over the situation when he uncrossed his arms and held one out to the side, looking her in the eyes. "Then, let's go have a chat with Jasper." When she whined, he grinned. "You would be very surprised to find how easy some of the hardest things in life become once you get over that final mental hurdle. Very horrible things are still very fresh in your mind. Honestly, I was quite surprised to find you down here, but here you are, so why would I allow you to walk away when you are this close to obtaining a piece of yourself back?"

Have scrunching and arms dropping, Bella pouted. "What are you talking about?"

Caius just have her a small smile. "Your sense of security, Sella, is what I'm talking about. When it comes to you, there are many truly debatable topics, and many arguments to be made for a great many things. There are very few issues that are straightforward, but this is one of them. They took from you the most important thing we have, and good caretaker or bad, your sire translated directly to your sense of security

"How you would have actually been treated by your sire is fully and completely up in the air. No one person found thus far knows all that much about him. For all we know, his actions toward you could have just been because you were human at the time, and again for all we know, could have changed very drastically after that bite. We can make as many assumptions as we want, but we will never really know.

"Now, I am going to ask you keep as open of a mind as you can when I say this; you are well within rights to feel whatever you do when it comes to that coven. Everything is justified, but the only emotion you feel for them when it comes to James' death is anger. Everything else stems from the mountain of deplorable decisions that followed that event. You had a relationship with them. You had good memories with them. They also meant something to you. At one time, they made you feel almost as safe as Demetri does. Somewhere in your mind you know you are _not_ the vampiress you should have been, and you are very likely never to become her... because of them. The time you spent on your own destroyed whatever chance of that you had, and the only way to get back what was stolen, is to take it back... By force if necessary."

Unable to help it, a barely there smile formed in the corner of Bella's lips. "Are you advocating violence, Caius?"

There was not a bone in his body that said otherwise. "If it comes to that, you bet your ass I am. I fully condone it, and oftentimes, greatly encourage it. What I am advocating for is justice, and there are many, many ways to serve it. Justice for you will not be considered had until you are whole, and if you have to take everything back that was stolen from you by physical force, I support it full heartedly."

The longer she was a vampire, the more she was realizing just how fucked up the race was. She wasn't quite as flattered by his words as she had been by some of the things Demetri had said to her, but she still let out a little giggle at Caius. "I don't think it'll come to that."

Caius just shrugged. "Pity, but if it does, just know you have me in your corner." When her head bobbed in a shallow nod, he again held his arm out to the side. "Now... shall we go have that chat?"

It took her a solid three minutes, long enough for Caius to think she was going to say no before she let out a long breath and pushed herself off the wall with another nod. She had taken that time to consider everything she had been told, and she was at least willing to put what she was told to the test. If she really was only afraid of them because of what happened after she woke up, then the best thing she could do was face it, because that fear wouldn't ebb with time if she didn't.

Even still, she kept herself a couple of steps behind Caius as he tapped the side of his fist on the metal door that housed who she wanted to talk to. It was always slightly humorous when one of the Kings was revealed to someone who wasn't expecting it, but she didn't savor Carlos' shock as much as she actually wanted to. If she didn't just do it, she wouldn't, and she really wanted to do this for Peter.

Slipping her body through the space between Caius and the doorway, Bella once again felt a rock in her stomach, but with another hard breath, shook it off as best she could as she walked down the cell block to Jasper's cell. Looking in, she saw him sitting against the back wall, his knees bent up, his arms draped over them, his head down and his eyes closed. She would have thought he was sleeping if she didn't know that was impossible.

Licking her dry lips, she did her best to ignore the other two in the room as she crouched down to Jasper's level. "How do I get ahold of Charlotte?"

Jasper opened his eyes, and looking through his bangs, locked eyes with the newborn that was looking back at him. He didn't actually need to feel her emotions; he could smell them. He really never did like it when a female was afraid of him, but the one before him, who he actually cared about, prompted what was probably the worst thing he ever personally felt about himself before. He thought he hated himself when he was in the army, but he was wrong. The feeling could get worse.

Even still, she was now mated to someone more dangerous than he was, and Charlotte was his own offspring. Like hell was he going to make the same mistake twice. He kept his voice level, but it still carried a decent amount of force. "You're joking, right? Do you really think I'm going to tell you that so you can ruin someone else's life when you run to that male of yours? If you do, you're out of your fucking mind."

Okay... now she was pissed off for another reason entirely. Eyes narrowing and crinkling in the corners, Bella's lip curled as she scoffed. "Nice to see your balls finally dropped and you're actually protecting a girl against something she couldn't possibly have the ability to face, but seriously? I ruin lives? Because I'm the one that got involved with a human, right? Because I'm the one that directly challenged a nomad, right? Because I'm the one that chased your asses all over Northern Washington, right? Because I'm the one that called a pack of fucking wolves and turned them loose on you, right? Yeah, Jasper... I'm the one that ruins lives. How fucking dare you? If you wanna see someone who ruins lives, I'll get you a goddamn mirror, _Major._ "

There was a staring contest between Bella and Jasper as the very stark realization that Peter had been telling war stories gripped Jasper and hard. He could absolutely not dispute he had spent a great deal of his life as a monster, and clearly, 60 years wasn't long enough yet to atone for it.

After a very tense thirty seconds, Bella rolled her marred shoulder and lost the glare her expression had settled into. "As for Demetri, he and Peter have a deal, and unlike you, he's actually a man with enough integrity to mean what the fuck he says. Besides, Demetri has Peter, you dipshit. If he actually cared about Charlotte, don't you think he would have gotten her by now? He already knows exactly where she is, so I mean, it's not like it would be hard."

It took Jasper a moment to register the fact Bella Swan actually stood her ground against someone, but even once that happened, he still didn't give up the goods. He just leaned forward between his knees, his own eyes narrowing. "Then what the hell are you asking me for?"

She gave him back the same damn attitude. "Because I'm not here on behalf of Demetri, and believe me, he doesn't need me to be."

Jasper just snorted hard as he leaned back against the wall of his cell. "You're his mate now. Everything you do is on his behalf."

Grunting as she stood up back up, Bella's lip curled high in disgust. "You have to be the most hard headed son of a bitch to ever walk this Earth, Jerk, but fine... I'll do it your way and have Demetri track her down. Wonder how well she'll fare and how Peter is going to feel when he finds out whatever psychological trauma caused by Demetri just showing up at her door could have been avoided by a fucking phone call. Real smart pissing off the only two people that have ever truly had you back."

It took a lot to catch Jasper that much off guard, but finding out just how many stories Peter had been telling was enough to do it. When Bella turned to leave, he shot off the floor, grabbing the bars of his cell. "Bella, wait." She only turned part way back to him, and he signed when she just crossed her arms and cocked a brow. "She's not safe here."

Brow rising higher, Bella glanced at Caius before turning back to Jasper. "How is she not? From the stories I've heard, she was a newborn when she broke the law in the army, and she and Peter left before her first year was over. It was only by a couple of days, but if I understand the newborn laws, she isn't accountable for what she did during that first full year; her sire is." Grinning wide enough to so teeth when Caius confirmed her words, her head tilted slightly. "She's yours, isn't she?" When Jasper said nothing, Bella chuckled. "I wonder, Jasper, who it is you're actually protecting right now; Charlotte, or yourself?"

Proud was an understatement on Caius' part as he watched the young vampire stand against that particular elder one. Not many would have the gall to challenge the Southern Major, but something inside that newborn blossomed during their conversation. Anger was certainly a powerful emotion, and it could become one hell of a weapon once someone learned to use it, and not just be ruled by it.

He grinned wide as he crossed his arms and looked at Jasper himself. "Quite the interesting question, isn't it, Major? I look forward to finding out the answer. For now, you had your chance, so now we will do this my way. Carlos." At the expected 'Yes Master Caius', he never moved his eyes from Jaspers. "Bring me the empath's phone."

All Jasper could do was close his eyes. Leaning his forehead on the bars of his cell, he let out a sigh that was even too quiet for a vampire to hear. By the time he opened them, Bella was once again standing in front of him, his phone held in her lightly closed palm.

Her eyes were liquid, but her voice was stone. "Yours, is a life, I look forward to ruining." As she slipped his phone into her pocket, she went to leave, but paused, looking over her shoulder at him. "To answer your question of why, I just wanted to extend an invitation for her to attend the ball. I thought Peter might like to see her, let her know what was going on, and that she is welcome to come and go as she pleases until his sentence is served."

Alice, having all she could stomach as she reached through the bars of her own cell to try and comfort Jasper, glared at who she once thought would be her best friend forever. "What happened to you?"

Stopping at the door, Bella turned back, locking her mocking red eyes on the orange ones of the pixy. "You did."

*X*

Sitting in the middle of her bed, Bella stared at the phone in her hand, debating on whether or not this was a good idea. She knew Charlotte wasn't in any danger, and she really did want to surprise Peter, but at the same time, she knew how protective of her he was, and she wasn't sure how well that would actually go over with this being the place it was.

Still, before she could completely talk herself out of it, she hit send and put her own phone to her ear. She wasn't sure she would answer, but she figured she had a better chance with an unknown number than she would with Jasper's.

Biting her nail, she counted the rings, and just when she thought voicemail was going to pick up, a light hearted voice with a deep southern twang to match Peter's came through the line. " _Hello?"_

Swallowing the lump of slight fear in her throat, Bella licked her lips and let out a breath. "Hi; is this Charlotte?"

" _Yes it is. Who I got the pleasure a talkin' to?"_

Scratching her temple, Bella steeled herself for whatever was about to happen before she responded. "Hi, Charlotte. Um, you don't know me, but I uh... I know Peter."

There was a tinkering giggle. " _Darlin', that don't narrow down nuthin. That man know way too many people I don't for that ta be a good hint."_

Shifting her eyes, Bella cleared her throat again. "My name's Bella, and I only just met him, so I guess I can't say I _know_ him, anyway."

There was a slight change to Charlotte's tone after that. " _Didja now? Well, Bella, you wanna tell me what the hell you doin' with my man?"_

Well... Shit.

That certainly took a turn she hadn't meant for the conversation to take.

As quickly as she could, she shook her eyes, her eyes going slightly wind. "Oh, oh God not what I meant. What I meant was..."

Cut off from making the situation worse, Bella blinked when there was a bell like laugh in her ear, followed by the very amused sound of Charlotte's voice. " _Calm down, Sugar. I know who ya are. Ya didn't think Peter was gonna be spending that much time 'round you without lettin' me know what was goin' on, didja?"_ There was a slight pause and the clearing of her own throat before Charlotte's voice came back through. " _I gotta tell ya, Dolly, I appreciate whatcha did for him. I dunno if I coulda gone that long without pullin' some kinda stupid stunt that would land us both in hot water."_

Feeling much better than she did a minute ago, Bella let out a breathless chuckle. "It's nothing compared to what he did for me, trust me. I just wish I could have done more."

" _You stop that, now. Peter knew exactly what he was doin' when he took off outta here like he did. Ain't nobody know what gonna happen like he do, somethin' you gonna learn the hard way, seems ta me. Don't take what he did lightly, but don't devalue whatcha did, either, Darlin'. They both pretty damn impressive for the fact you two strangers."_

Biting into her lip, Bella picked at her bedspread. "I guess so. Um... I don't know what all he told you about his situation."

" _Not much, but he never do. I know he your guard dog for the next year, but nothin' more than that, and if that all he told me, it all I need ta know."_

Nodding slowly, Bella hummed. "If you say so. Erm... anyway, that wasn't the reason I called. I wanted to ask you something."

There was genuine curiosity in her voice when Charlotte spoke again. " _What's that, Darlin'?"_

Biting the bullet, Bella spit it out. "I know it's pretty short notice, but I wanted to surprise Peter by extending an invitation to you to come to this stupid ball in three days as my personal guest."

There was a hard snort through the line. " _Holy hell, Dolly, you got a lot ta learn 'bout Peter fuckin' Whitlock. Nobody surprises that man. No. Ba. Dy. 'Sides, you got any idea what he would do ta both a us if I showed up in Italy like that? Death would be kind way before he got done."_

Bella's nose wrinkled. "I'm... I'm not all that afraid of him."

" _Course you ain't scared. You got that fella a yours ta get between ya._

That didn't change Bella's expression. "I gotta be honest here, Charlotte. I'm not so much a fan of you being afraid of him, either."

There was a grunt, followed by a hard sigh. " _I ain't, in no way, afraid a my man. Let's clear that shit right up. But, Peter, he... he someone ta be afraid of, but he wouldn't cross no lines like that with me. The thing is, Dolly, I've seen that man at his worst, and he fuckin' terrifyin' when he get goin', and I learned a long time ago not ta poke that bear."_

Making a face, Bella's nose twitched. "So you don't want to see him, then?"

" _A course I wanna see 'im. I just ain't stupid enough ta think anyone gonna be pullin' wool over that man's eyes."_ There was a brief moment before Charlotte came back on. " _But, if you wanna give it a go, I'm game. Be the first time ever I surprised him. He a good sport when I try, though, always actin' like he ain't had no idea. You just tell me where ta be and when ta be there, and I'm in."_

It was almost a cruel looking smirk that pulled at Bella's lips as she giggled. "Just get to Florence in three days, and I'll take it from there."

And what a flurry of activity those three days were, too.

It had become clear that after Demetri bit her, the reason for the party had changed and was being treated more like a wedding than anything else, but unlike Demetri, she hadn't exactly been left to take things in stride like he was. Dora and Pica had told her what the men's roles were, and that was literally nothing more than showing up whereas she was expected to make a million decisions she didn't want to make.

So, since they decided to have their entertainment at her expense and not leave her alone, she decided a little payback was in order, and literally went out of her way to make their lives as difficult as she possibly could. She was getting used to her burning desire for mind games, and also decided they would be her trial victims.

It was five hours until the doors opened to guests, and she had yet to tell them of any concrete choices she made.

"Where is your guardian?"

Not taking her eye away from the crack she had made in the doors to the ballroom, Bella shrugged. "Um... getting his final fitting for his suit, I think."

There was a snort to the response as Caius brought the glass in his hand to his lips. "Peter Whitlock in 4 piece dress attire. After that, I do believe I will have seen everything."

Bella joined in his chuckle as her tongue poked out from between her lips, watching through the crack in the doors as the staff inside began to look at each other, their faces becoming worried because they were reaching the point there was one change or another made, and clearly, they were concerned there was another one coming. With the opening of the doors so soon, they weren't sure they would be able to completely redo the decorations in time.

Caius watched as a spark ignited in the newborn's eyes, and sighed. "You're going to change the colors again, aren't you?" To his surprise, she shook her head, and he cocked his. "Then what are you up to?"

Glancing at him from the corner of her eyes, she giggled. "I'm going to tell Dora and Pica I am. What do you think they would say to neon pink and green?"

Lip turning up in the corner, there was a grunt from the ruler. "I think they would probably attempt to kill you."

There was a very dark smirk on Bella's lips at the answer. "Perfect." In truth, she had not only finalized what she wanted for the color scheme, but also had her own final fitting for her dress in a half hour. So far as she knew, everyone but the two pests in her life had their clothing for the ball, and everything was set to go once the army of decorators were done. The two 'queens', however, kept having to change their whole dress design to go with whatever two colors she picked, because heaven forbid they do things the easy way and just change the colors and not the whole damn dress. Something she had never known was, apparently, certain colors had to be worn a certain way, or... something to that effect.

Caius, who had been listening to his mate prattle on about the constant changes, and hearing the horror in her voice over her new dress not being done, or having to wear one she had already been seen in, found the situation rather amusing, if he were honest. What it came down to, in his mind, wasn't anything about a dress. The party had been intended specifically for Isabella as a way to welcome her into the coven, but was now was a party to celebrate the mating between her and Demetri. However, just like with Sulpicia, she wasn't used to not having a single say in the planning process. Sure, they could make suggestions, but clearly, the newborn was doing shit to them out of spite, which led Caius to hum in his throat.

"Stella?" When he heard a hum from her, though she didn't hand over more than her ear, he tapped his finger on the stem of the glass in his hand. "Might you tell me what they did. The ball is today, and there will never be peace in the palace if this color scheme nonsense isn't sorted out."

Bella, cocking her head to the side, licked her lips. "I'm aware of when it is. I have been assaulted by everyone but a damn caterer trying to shove food down my throat. Anyway, this party was their idea, not mine. As a matter of fact, I have said several times, I didn't want the stupid thing. So, I'm going to make their lives as inconvenient as they have made mine by going through every single color combination I can fucking think of before telling them the truth."

Caius just rolled his eyes. "You don't find that petty? For me, I fail to see how something as insignificant as a ball is any sort of inconvenience, Young Lady. You show up, smile at the guests, and leave. It's not as if it's the end of the world, Stella."

Bella snorted and finally stood up, turning to face Caius fully and crossing her arms. "Of course it's fucking petty. That's the point. They did it first, so I don't feel even a little bad about it."

Pieces clicking together in head like a puzzle, Caius shook his head and grunted. "What did they do this time?" Knowing the two like he did, he wasn't surprised to find out this was retaliatory, but he was rather impressed the lengths in which this particular vampire was willing to go for revenge.

Bella wasn't even nice about it. "Put their noses in my business and pissed me off. The only relationship they should have any interest in is their own, yet those are just about the only ones they don't care to talk about. They decided to talk about mine and Demetri's, which first off, is none of their goddamn business, but it led to all kinds of awkward. I'm so sorry they lead such a boring fucking existence they have have to find their entertainment in the lives of others, but they're loud, and I do hear them. So, I will continue to do what I'm doing, and... yeah. That's about the end of it."

Caius watched as Bella turned back to the doors, his eyes crinkled in the corners. "And what does Demetri think of the spectacle you're making of this party?"

Glancing at him from the corner of her eye with a sour look, Bella grunted. "Do you really think he's any happier about the shit they were saying than I am?" Snorting with a marked lack of amusement, Bella returned her attention into the ballroom. "He thinks this shit is funnier than hell, and half the color choice were his idea."

Finishing his half of a glass of wine in one swallow, he knew he was going to regret asking, but Caius did it anyway. "What did they say?"

Mood completely shattered, Bella frowned as her eyes lowered. "I heard them talking about how they misread the situation and how Demetri was reevaluating his options and their speculation on who it could be." Standing back up, she crossed her arms and looked at the ground. "I didn't tell him this, but," flicking her eyes to Caius', "they called me his charity case."

Closing his eyes, Caius sighed through his nose. Slowly shaking his head, he clicked his tongue. "And they have no idea you heared that, do they?"

"Does it really matter?"

Pressing his lips together, he had to admit, it really didn't. He was well aware the two liked to gossip, everyone knew it, and no one had ever really paid attention to what it was they said. In this instance, however, he found himself siding with the newborn. She had a right to be angry about that conversation, as well as did Demetri. If all the pair was going to do about it was fuck around with the colors to their own mating reception, he would leave it be, but did make a mental note to have a word with his mate, and ensure Aro had one with his own, so they don't find themselves in a much more precarious situation in the future.

When the newborn first arrived Demetri's intentions for her were made perfectly clear, and Caius had personally said only so many allowances would be made before Demetri made an example out of some poor bastard that crossed the wrong line. He could have very easily killed Aro that day and not thought twice about it, and Aro didn't even directly attack his intended. Now that she was his actual mate, whatever tolerant fuse he had when it came to her was gone, and though he would do it in a heartbeat, Caius did not relish in the idea of going toe to toe with Demetri because Athenodora couldn't keep her damn mouth shut on matters that didn't concern her.

Pulled out of his musings by the ringing of a phone, Caius returned his attention to the topic of his thoughts as she pulled her phone out the inner pocket of her jacket. To him, it seemed as if she was expecting the call because she didn't look at the screen before she maneuvered it open and placed it at her ear.

And, he wasn't wrong in his assessment. Still slightly subdued by the conversation she was having, there was a slight perking up as she turned to her call. "Did you land yet?"

" _Sure did, and I gotta tell ya Dolly, it a whole new experience makin' this kind a trip alone when you so used ta havin' someone else witcha."_

Making a face as her nose wrinkled, Bella tsked. "Sorry."

" _Oh, it ain't no problem, I was just sayin'. So, what's the plan from here?"_

It was then she smiled. So far, she was able to make all these different arrangements and as of yet, there was no indication on Peter's part he had any idea. She wasn't positive he wasn't just being indulgent like Charlotte said he was when she wanted to surprise him, but with the way she also said he would blow his top at finding out his mate was on her way to the Lion's den, she figured if he did know, he would have something to say about it. Since he hadn't she was banking on him not knowing.

"Okay, Heidi should be there to pick you up, but if she's not, give her a couple minute and she will be. Just look for the purple eyes. She has your dress, shoes, everything with her, and I got you a room at Tenuta di Artimino." She gave Caius the finger when he snorted at her butchering the pronunciation of the hotel, but she was still learning how to speak Italian, and there were bound to be mistakes. Returning to her call, she licked her lips. "You only have about three and half hours before you have to be on your way, so keep that in mind. With everyone else that's going to be here, Demetri asked Peter to be my escort because as part of the coven, he has to be present to accept the arriving guests. Because of that, Peter will be the last person to enter the ballroom, and I want you already in there. Call me selfish, but after everything I've put into this, I actually want to see his face when he sees you."

Charlotte was quiet for a moment before she spoke again. " _So, he ain't said a thing 'bout this? Like, you tellin' me my man might not actually know what goin' on?"_

Bella giggled, lowering her voice. At this point, if he found out because she spoke too loud, the level of pissed off she would be would likely end in her not showing up to her own party. "Not as far as I've heard. He hasn't said anything to me, and Felix had been keeping him pretty busy the last couple of days in kind of like a... fallback plan for lack of something else to keep him focused on something and not giving him a lot of time wonder what the hell I'm up to. I'm hoping that's enough to keep him in the dark, but I don't know enough about his intuition to know exactly how to counter it. I have noticed most of the time he talks about those voices in his head, it's because something bad is going to happen. Since this isn't bad, maybe they won't think he needs to know."

There was a snort in her ear. " _You talkin' 'bout them voices the same way he do, and it just as annoyin'. Those fuckin' voices damn near rule that man's life, and they drive me fuckin' bonkers. Anyway, I think I see the lady you said ta look for. At least, it betta be the way she flappin' them arms a hers like a damn duck."_

The mental image of that made Bella choke on her breath, but let it go. She needed to get up to her room before Aurora came looking for her, so instead, she just made a noise in the back of her throat. "Alright then. I guess I'll see you in about five hours, then."

" _Lookin' forward to it, Dolly."_

*X*

"You up ta somethin'."

Not looking up from her shoe as Rachel helped her buckle them around her ankles, Bella just kept holding her dress out of the way as she hummed at Peter's statement of fact. "I'm sorry; what?"

No, no no... it was the final moments! Everything was done. Charlotte arrived ten minutes ago, and he didn't know. He couldn't find out _now_.

Shifting her eyes to the door where Peter stood, she gave an appreciative hum as she looked him up and down. "You certainly clean up nice... shoes aside."

Peter's lip curled in the corner as he glanced down at himself, taking in the black slacks, black sport jacket, stark white shirt, dark red vest, and matching tie. The only saving grace here in his opinion was he was able to hunt down a pair of black boots that passed the tailor's inspection. With a grunt, he pulled slightly at the collar of his shirt with one hand while he pointed at her with the other. "You leave my damn boots the hell alone, Woman. I didn't even get this spiffed up when I married my ol' lady. Last I knew, I was just a guest ta this shit, so a pair a new jeans shoulda been acceptable attire."

Unable to help it, Bella giggled at the expression of pure personal disgust on Peter's face. "Have you, at any point since you've been here, seen someone wearing jeans?"

Peter's annoyed expression smoothed out at the question. "Yeah... you."

Once Rachel backed off and stood, Bella dropped the front of her skirt and turned to face him, her arms held out to the side. "Do I look like I'm wearing jeans?"

Peter just snorted. "This party is for you, so ya should be dolled up like ya are."

She wasn't sure what it was, because be didn't really say anything that should have sparked the feeling she was overtaken by, but in that moment, it was like the weight of everything settled on her shoulders, and she became very, very insecure. Bottom lip pulling between her teeth, Bella began to play with her fingers, her eyes casting to the floor. Her voice when she did speak again was quiet and completely lacking any form of confidence. "Do I look okay?"

Giving her the same once over she gave him, he tilted his head.

Her hair held more curl than it normally did and was pulled to one side of her head, the strands cascading down the side of her face and pooled on her shoulder. As a male, he knew it was done the way it was because it left Demetri's bite mark completely exposed, but as someone that knows her, he knew it also had the added benefit of covering the majority of the slashes and claw scars on that side of her body.

Her dress was something of a masterpiece for the time spent on it. It was red without straps and a sweetheart neckline, onyx crystals across the bust, down her sternum, and around the waistline, the placement accentuating her natural figure. The skirt had some body to it, but it wasn't overly poofy, and would flow when she walked. She had gloves on that went to just under her elbow in the same color red as her dress, with a black swirl pattern that mirrored the one the stones on her dress. While the coven and guards would all be wearing black and some shade of red, no one but her and Demetri would be wearing crimson.

Realizing in that moment he knew way too much about dresses for the dick between his legs, he hummed. "You look real nice, Little Darlin', and that fella lucky ta have ya. He ever makes ya doubt that, let me know, and I'll beat his ass so bad, his own mama won't recognize 'im when I'm done."

Unable to help it, Bella giggled. "I think I would pay to see that."

Giving her a wink, Peter pushed himself off his shoulder and smiled. "Well, I think they waitin' on us, Little Lady. You ready?"

Looking down at herself, she grunted. "Yeah, I think so."

It wasn't until they were on the other side of the ballroom doors Peter glanced down at her, his expression more serious than she had ever seen it. "I'll tell ya one thing, though." When she looked up at him, he narrowed his eyes. "I see a scrape a denim in that room, I'm beatin' your little ass."

*X*

There were so many reasons Demetri avoided being present at the palace when the Mistresses threw parties, and the biggest one was, he did not like others very much. There were a select few he enjoyed the company of, but the vampire race as a whole annoyed the piss out of him. He wasn't sure if those two invited every vampire in creation or not, but if he was uncomfortable with the number of bodies present, he had to wonder how his mate was going to handle it. She liked others even less than he did, and her temper was a lot harder to keep in check than his was.

Thankfully, he had been present for enough of these parties his friends to know it was wise to carve out a corner to be used as an escape of sorts, and had that shit set up before the first guest arrived. Since the event was now as much for him as it was Isabella, he couldn't hide, nor could he make a graceful, and early, bow out, Demetri resigned himself to playing nice with others.

Honestly, he could not understand why so many invitations were sent out. It wasn't that formal of an event. Even had it stayed its original purpose, it didn't in anyway call for so many attendees. Vampires mated and joined covens all the damn time, and without an ounce of fanfare to go with it. When he turned his head and caught sight of his own sire, he actually felt the vein in his temple pulse.

Knowing how little his mate liked attention, and how poorly she still reacted to large groups, he was positive this was some sort of power play designed by Athenodora and Sulpica, but he could not figure out what it could be to save his life. Isabella was still a newborn, still acted like a newborn, and was still prone to having fits for next to no reason. They were either determined to drive her out after she lost control of herself, or they wanted her self-image so low she never left her room.

Cutting his eyes to Felix, one brow bobbed slightly, getting a popped shoulder shrug in response.

There was one shining light in the sea of guests, and that was the single one that was actually invited by either he or his mate. When Heidi returned with the Captain's mate, Demetri snagged the tiny blonde vampire, noticing the moment she entered the room the amount of attention she was getting. He wasn't stupid; others knew who she was because people knew who Peter was. Just because he was able to stay off their radar didn't mean he was invisible. However, since he wasn't currently present and she was, that could have translated into others thinking she was on the market when she wasn't. Finding it better to err on the side of caution, he decided to keep her with him until her male showed up with his mate.

And she was certainly a sweetheart, in Demetri's opinion. She and Peter hadn't been apart that long, but it was still the longest they had been separated in nearly a century, so even though there was a good foot of distance between them, he could still feel her vibrating excitement.

He and Charlotte were talking about nothing really when Rachel finally came into the ballroom, stopping to speak with Aro before she made her way over to Demetri, a smile on her face.

Her eyes were gleaming as she dipped her head. "Isabella and Captain Whitlock are on their way down, Master Demetri."

After nodding to Rachel, Demetri grinned down at Charlotte as he presented her his arm. "Shall we go wait for them?"

Charlotte could barely contain herself as she nodded, taking Demetri's elbow and allowing him to guide her through the crowd. There were so many different levels of excitement on her part, she wasn't honestly sure which one was the biggest at the moment. Sure, she was excited to see him, but she couldn't say that wasn't overshadowed by the possibility of finally being able to surprise him for once.

As Demetri took up his place in the center of the ballroom, his coven taking their places with him, he kept Charlotte right next to him, her arm through his, as the guards cleared a path from the doors through the room. He would be a liar if he said he didn't want to see Peter's reaction to his mate's presence as much as Isabella did, and he had been looking forward to this from the moment she told him what she was up to.

How she was able to pull it off, Demetri had no idea, but there was no stopping the smirk on his lips when the doors opened, Isabella and Peter stepped inside, and the latter damn near tripped over his shock.

Red eyes wide as dinner plates, Peter's breath caught in his throat as he watched his lady light up like the sun when he entered the room. His voice was actually choked when it slipped past his lips. "Char..."

Next to him, Bella smiled as she watched Demetri dip his head, whisper in Charlotte's ear, and release the little Texas tornado. All she did was step slightly to the side so she didn't get tackled.

Char didn't waste a moment before darting straight into Peter's waiting arms, and she squealed when he leaned back and her feet left the ground. The noise was cut off by Peter's lips pressing hard against hers, and she melted when he pulled back. "Hi, Sugar."

Setting his forehead against his mates, Peter was almost at a loss of words. "Baby Girl, what are ya doin' here?"

Charlotte just smiled at him. "I was invited." Then she pushed herself back, patting Peter's chest as she got really excited again. "Now, put me down. I wanna watch."

Though he certainly didn't want to, Peter released her enough to let her turn around before he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back into his chest just in time to see Bella take Demetri's arm Charlotte had just let go of.

Looking back at the reunited couple, Bella chuckled as she whispered to Demetri. "Think we surprised him?"

Also glancing back, Demetri hummed. "I do believe, My Love, we can call your first mission a complete success."

Giving his attention to his Head of Coven when Aro lightly cleared his throat, Demetri took his arm back when Aro presented him with a long, velveteen box. He wasn't kidding when he said there was very little fanfare that went into joining a coven or having a mating officially recognized, and his coven was literally no different. It was mostly about the spectacle, and that was proven when, after Demetri removed the Coven Coat of Arms, clasped the choker around the neck of his mate, and Aro addressed no one but coven, looking at Demetri and Bella in turn.

"May your love be eternal, Master, and Mistress, Demetrius Voltalian." With his eyes on Bella's, Aro smiled at her. "Welcome to our coven.

While the words were exclusively meant for the coven, everyone present heard them, but it wasn't until the coven's bowed heads raised there was a thunderous applause from the gathering.

When his mate turned to look up at him, Demetri dipped his head, his nose nuzzling hers. "I don't think I will ever not enjoy hearing that." Pressing his lips to hers, he pulled back after a moment, looking at her with the most tender expression she had seen on his face yet.

However, with a slight amusement in her voice, Bella smiled at him. "Demetrius?"

An expression full of snark settled on his face as he raised a brow at her. "Isabella."

It didn't take her a fraction of a second to put that together. "Demetri is a nickname."

Nodding once, Demetri clasped his hands behind his back. "It is. My given name is Demetrius, but like you when it comes to your full name, I don't go by it. I did as a human, but where I'm from, it is a rather common name, even today. However, we can get more into that later if it's your wish. For now," unclasping his hands, he held one out to the side, "I believe there is a very excitable guest that wants to meet you."

Unable to help it, when she looked where Demetri was gesturing, she gulped and slid a fraction behind his arm. "And a very pissed off body guard that looks like he wants to strangle me."

Clicking his tongue as he presented his mate his arm, he looked down at her as she took it and he lead her toward the couple. "I do believe I will let you deal with that."

Gasping in near horror, Bella shifted her eyes from Peter to Demetri. "That's so wrong."

Demetri merely lifted his other shoulder. "Actions, My Dearest, have consequences; even the ones done with the best of intentions."

All Bella did was grunt, but she gave Charlotte a wide smile when they were closer, and stumbled slightly as she released Demetri's arm and returned the very exuberant embrace she found herself in.

When Charlotte pulled back, she took both Bella's hands in her her's, a look of mock disappointment on face. "That was the most borin' weddin' ever, Sugar."

Blinking at the statement, Bella licked her lips, but it was Demetri that addressed Char. "The difference between our ways of life, it seems. Marriage is a human institution, and we don't pretend to be humans."

Letting out an exaggerated sigh, Char pretended to pout. "Well, fine then." She then turned her sights on Bella, and smiled for real. "You ain't nothin' like I pictured. You stunnin' Darlin'."

The words were out before she could stop them. "So you thought I was ugly?"

Char, left to trip over her tongue, scoffed when Bella laughed lightly. Pointing a finger in her face, "I like you."

Laughing outright, Bella took her hands back, wrapping them both around Demetri's arm as she braced herself and looked up at Peter. "So... were you surprised?" When he narrowed his eyes, she lightly cleared her throat. "You're not mad, are you?"

Eyes narrowing just a little more, Peter huffed out a breath through his nose. "Naw, I ain't mad. Shocked and slightly annoyed." Reaching out and pulling his mate back into his hold, he looked down at Char. "But I certainly ain't mad."

Licking her lips, Bella glanced up at Demetri for a moment, and when he nodded to her, she looked back at Peter and waiting until she had his attention again. "So, here's the deal. You have two choices." Nodding her head to Charlotte when Peter cocked a brow at her, "She, can either come and go as she pleases over the course of your service, or... she can stay here for the duration, and still be allowed to come and go as she pleases."

This was the second time this little lady surprised him today, and Peter was nothing if not a little skeptical about it. His lip curled slightly and his crinkled in the corners. "What's the catch?"

Quick to shake her head, Bella explained the situation. "There isn't one. Do you really think I'm so horrible as to invite her to come here if there was even the slightest chance something bad would happen?" She gave him a moment to answer, but when he didn't, Bella continued. "She's not in any trouble, therefore there isn't any reason to force her to stay here. Everything she did when she was in army was when she was newborn, and newborn's actions are their sire's judgements."

Lowering her eyes, Bella lightly cleared her throat. "I haven't known Demetri a fraction of the time you two have been together, and it physically hurts when he's gone, and he hasn't even left for more than a day since I've known him." Flicking her eyes back to Peter's, she gave him a half smile. "It's already been cleared with Aro, so now the decision is in your hands."

Holding his mate tight to his side, Peter let out a airy snort like chuckle. "You really are some kind a impressive."

At that, Bella giggled. "I wouldn't go that far. Aro said it was a reward of sorts for having the balls to turn yourself in. Marcus said it was bad idea to separate two such bonded mates for such a long period of time. And Caius said, in all reality, your service is to me and not the guard, so ultimately, what happens with you, or to you as the case may be over the next year, is my decision."

It was then Demetri stepped in the conversation. "However, it changes nothing of importance. Your mate with you or not, you do still have a job to do while you carry out your sentence. I wasn't joking when I said you will spend time in my dungeons if anything happens to my mate while she is supposed to be in your care. If you cannot provide adequate protection for both, then..."

Peter cut Demetri off, and in a way he shouldn't have, "Boy, don't you..."

With a growl, Demetri returned the favor. "What did I say about calling me that?"

Bella and Charlotte locked eyes at the two men started growling at each other, and rolled their eyes after a moment, moving to put themselves between their very alpha males.

Bella smiled at female in front of her as she leaned back hard into Demetri's chest to hold him back. "Well, before these two whip their dicks out and have a measuring contest, I'll just say enjoy the party, and we'll catch up a little later."

Returning the smile in much the same position Bella was in, Charlotte nodded. "Sounds nice, Sugar. Congratulations on the matin', by the way. You two real cute tagether."

Smiling in thanks, Bella turned into Demetri, her hands on his chest, and gave him a shove to start moving. This wasn't the place for him and Peter to find out who was the topdog in their working relationship, and, whether she wanted the party or not, she wasn't about to let two testosterone fueled assholes ruin it.

Charlotte, doing the same with her male, shook her head once there was some distance between him and Demetri, snorting when he called the tracker a pompous dickhead. Looking up at him with a raised brow and crossed arms, she narrowed her eyes. "You some kinda stupid, Pete. I don't give a rat's behind how good ya think ya are, you ain't winnin' shit here. 'Sides, I like that little betty, and I happen ta know you do to."

There was a look of irritation on Peter's face as he crossed his own arms. "I do, but I just... I don't like him."

Charlotte just shrugged. "You ain't gotta like 'im, but Sugar, ya gotta deal with him. Ain't that easier when the ground ain't quakin'?"

A shit eating grin spread across Peter's lips as he grabbed his mate by the hips, pulling her flush against him as he looked her dead in the eyes. "I happen ta like makin' the ground quake."

Giggling in her throat, Charlotte leaned into his chest and looked up at him. "I missed ya, Pete."

Dipping his head, Peter brushed his lips to hers, pulling and smiling at her. "I missed ya too, Darlin'. I'll tell ya somethin', though." Glancing across the room when she asked what that was, he looked at the couple, watching as Demetri spun Bella around and listening to her laugh. Letting out a quiet hum, he licked his lips. "With you here, it gonna be a lot easier ta teach that girl ta fight right." Looking back at her, he clicked his tongue at her confused expression, speaking low. "I ain't got all the details yet, so go sayin' nothin', but somethin' comin', and it gonna be bad."


	16. Chapter 16

She hated to admit it, she truly did, but Bella couldn't deny the fact she was having a lot of fun. While she would like to say it was the company, she knew that would be a lie, and it was because of the exuberant amount of alcohol she had ingested up to that point.

She was so drunk, as a matter of fact, she was even able to ignore the fact Esme and Rosalie were among the trainees made into the serving staff, though not so much to the point she didn't have a laugh or several at Rosalie's expense. The bitch was so used to the finer things in life, to be relegated to carrying a tray of champagne flutes clearly did not sit well with her. To Bella's absolute delight, she actually got to watch her get dismissed without even so much as a glance multiple times; the guests not stopping their conversation to take a glass from the tray, or merely waving a hand in her face to shoo her away.

Bella also never thought she would actually enjoy having a titled position. She had never felt any sense of superiority to anyone before. She never thought she was better than anyone. Many times since Aro dubbed her Mistress she had told people not to call her that because she didn't like it. However, when the Blonde brought her cute little tray full of delicious bubbly, Bella crossed her free arm over her chest, popped out a hip, and cocking a brow, staring the Cullen down until she said it.

That was the first time she didn't recoil at the sick sense of pleasure she got at someone else's expense.

Her new coven, Demetri specifically, couldn't have been more proud of her.

She was not only proving herself to becoming more comfortable with herself and her situation, but there were also sporadic glimmers here and there she was starting to embrace her new life as well. In the eighteen days she had been with them, an extraordinary amount of resources and effort had been put into her, and the work done seemed to be starting to pay off.

It wasn't just nursing her back from her deplorable state of malnourishment when Demetri found her in the woods. It wasn't just restoring movement in her jaw and shoulder. Honestly, her physical ailments were the easy part to deal with, even if what needed to be done wasn't the most desired. It was what couldn't be seen, the invisible injuries she sustained, that were the hardest to combat, and even if she was beginning to periodically show the promise Demetri always knew was there, there was still a very long road ahead of the pair.

When she pulled rank on Rosalie, Demetri had just stood next to Bella, the stem of his wine glass between his fingers, the bulb nestled in his palm, watching the situation with a close eye. He wasn't the only one that watched to see what would happen and how she would handle herself, and the smirk that pulled at his lips when she roughly, pointedly, cleared her throat, was one for the books, but it wasn't until Bella called her 'dumb bitch' as the blonde was walking away he chuckled. He said nothing about it, however, merely tapped his mate with his elbow, winking at her when she grinned her triumph.

That was an hour ago, and since then, the couple had met back up with Peter and Charlotte, the latter of which was as drunk as Bella, which made for some very interesting moments and slightly uncomfortable situations for a few people.

More than slightly tipsy himself, Demetri, standing next to Peter on the side of the dance floor, snorted as the two females decided it was a good idea to drag Felix into their little game. "I'm trying to decide if I should feel bad for him."

Peter, bringing his beer bottle to his lips, grunted. "That, right there, is why my lady ain't allowed ta drink wine. Shit makes her forget ta use her brain."

Chuckling slightly under his breath, Demetrii brought his own glass to his lips. "Are you insinuating wine makes your mate stupid?"

Swallowing his mouthful of beer, Peter pointed a finger at the dance floor, or, more specifically, Bella as she rubbed her ass on Felix's thigh. "Take a gander at your own fuckin' mate and tell me wine don't do the same damn thing ta her."

While it couldn't be denied her actions left something to be desired on Demetri's part, he just shrugged. In his mind, there were two very simple truths to be considered. Bella was a teenager when she was turned, and he was well aware this was her first time ever being shitfaced. He had long since resigned himself to looking the other way when it came to her behavior, and he would simply keep an eye on her as she enjoyed herself. He had told the Cullens in the dungeons he was not her keeper and, while their relationship had changed since then, he still did not find it his place to smother her.

Felix, who was completely aware of his surroundings, was as quick as he could be getting away from the pair of females, who didn't care, and simply danced with each other, leaving their males on the side of the dance floor to, in synchronized fashion, tilt their heads to the side.

Watching as the two girls grinded against each other, Demetri licked his lips and clicked his tongue. "We should separate them."

A hum in the back of his throat, Peter pursed his lips. "Mmhmm... get right on that."

Neither one moved a fucking muscle.

While Demetri might have been the definition of class and poise, he was still a man, and holy shit...

Clearing his throat, and finding it far more difficult than it should have been to tear his eyes away from the show his and the Captain's mates were putting on for whoever wanted to watch it, he did eventually find success in that endeavor and turned his attention to Peter, who continued to watch without a care. "So, have you made your choice?"

Peter clicked his tongue as he shrugged. "Ain't much a choice, Demetri. If I got the option, my lady stays with me." Cutting his eyes to the tracker, He continued before the man could start his bullshit again. "And, 'fore ya say it, so 'long as I'm alive, nothin' gonna happen ta either a them girls. Can't say I ain't rusty on some things, but protectin' a female's ass ain't on that particular list. Trust me, Char keeps that particular talent a mine nice an' honed."

Finishing his glass own glass of wine, Demetri licked the flavor from his upper lip before he grinned. "I had no intention of saying a word, Captain." When he heard Peter grunt, he looked at him. "I didn't. Reverse our situations, and then tell me you would not have said much the same to me as I have said to you."

A groaned growl slipped past Peter's lips as his own clouded mind did as he was told. Nose wrinkled and eyes narrowed, Peter shook his head. "I don't wanna like you."

It was with a chuckle Demetri crossed one arm over his chest as he held his empty glass by his face. "Then don't. I could truly not care less if you despise my very existence. Believe me, you would certainly not be the only one. However, I do not survive on the warm, fuzzy feelings others hold for me; I thrive on their discontent, and in many cases, strive to make it worse." Handing off his empty for a full glass, he continued without looking at Peter. "You think you're horrible, that your sire is the definition of evil." With a hard snort and a scoffed 'please', he then turned his head, locking his suddenly pitch black eyes on Peter's now somewhat standoffish red ones. "You're children."

Peter watched as Demetri blinked, opening blood red eyes once again with no transition between the onyx they just were. He wasn't sure what it was that loosened his tongue like it did, but after he killed his beer, Peter cracked his neck and shook his head. "There somethin' wrong with you."

Grinning wide, Demetri cocked a brow as he leaned to the side and closer to Peter, though he didn't speak any quieter. "Remind me again which one of us hears voices."

Giving Demetri a hard shove in the shoulder, pulling an outright laugh from the tracker, Peter glared. "That shit was just uncalled for."

There was still a laugh in Demetri voice as he caught his balance. "What was? Pointing out the fact there is something wrong with everyone present in one way or another? We all have our vices, Captain, and we all have our weaknesses." Returning his eyes to his mate, he twirled the wine in his glass. "The difference between you and I is more than just our age, upbringing, and personal life experiences. I am over ten times your senior, but with age does not always come wisdom. I was several centuries older than you are now when I learned what was probably the most important thing I ever have... what made me into the vampire that stands before you now."

It was something of a buried instinct for younger vampires to listen when their elders spoke of their past. It wasn't they were offering unsolicited advice, because what they had to say could rarely be considered advice. It was a moraled story, ending with a lesson already learned the hard way. Since much of humanity's folklore, and many of vampiric legends revolved around the actual life lived by this particular older vampire, Peter found himself more interested than he thought he would be in what Demetri stopped saying.

Exchanging his own empty bottle for a fresh beer, he prompted the asshole to finish what he was saying. "And that was?"

Turning his head, the look on Demetri's face, and tone of his voice when he spoke, told Peter it was literally the most obvious answer in the world. "Acceptance."

Forcefully jolting back, the look on Peter's face was one of utter confusion. "That's it? It took ya over three centuries ta learn that?"

Sighing hard, Demetri reached up and rubbed his temple with two fingers. "And that assumption of knowing what I meant is why you are still a child." Downing his wine, he audibly gulped down the overly large mouthful of red wine, and played with his tongue as he ordered his thought to express it properly. "I'm not talking about accepting yourself for who or what you are. If you haven't done that in the last however long you've been of the undead persuasion, you're not likely to do so, basically ever. And if you haven't yet done that, it is truly mind boggling you are still alive."

Tilting his head from one side to the other, Demetri hummed. "What I'm talking about goes far deeper into... your..." twirling his finger in a circle, he tsked a few times before he looked at Peter. "Subconsciousness than swallowing the pill of vampirism and all the side effects that goes with it. There are no stark realizations, no epiphanies. There is coming to terms with the fact your way is not the only one, and there are no perfect beings. If there were, we would all be the same, because you cannot deviate, you cannot alter, you cannot improve perfection.

"At the end of the day, all that bides in our world is just... a singular, simple truth. And that is..." It was then he lowered his voice, locking his eyes on Peter's. "Eternity doesn't exist."

Eyes immediately snapping to his laughing, drunk as fuck mate, Peter grunted hard. "Well... that sucks."

Looking to his own mate, Demetri crossed his arms. "I don't make the rules, Peter." A sinister smirk split his lips and he hummed in the back of his throat. "I just enforce them." Rolling his eyes when he was called a dick, Demetri sighed through his nose. "What I was saying before is really quite simple. Once you accept the fact no one is truly immortal, understand that forever is a lie, you obtain a whole new level of... well, I don't want to call it enlightenment, but there is certainly a healthy dose of liberation. It is our willingness to understand that we can actually die that decides our fate. It is our willingness to embrace what is _wrong_ with us that determines how easy it is for that happen. It is our willingness to accept every part of ourselves, including the deepest, darkest abyss of our minds where every evil thought and horrible action is cataloged, that allows us grow and, ultimately, evolve. Brash decisions are the calling card of children and you, Captain Whitlock, are still very much a child, or you wouldn't be standing here having this conversation with me."

Peter once again grunted as he reached across his throat and scratched at the back of his jaw. "Not sure I'd call this shit a conversation, Fella."

Though his annoyance was clear in his expression over Peter once again calling him something other than his name, this time, Demetri let it go in lieu of something else. "My point is this... for your age, you have a very impressive resume of hard earned accolades, and there is no a part of me that doubts you could best your sire even with his gift against you. However that said, you rely far too heavily on your mental friends to see you through your trials, and not nearly enough on your own true abilities." Then he gave an offhanded shrug. "You're not the only one, though. Most gifted do. The difference between vampires with gifts vs those of us without them, I suppose."

Turning fully to stare at the side of Demetri's head as he watched his mate, Peter's irritation began to grow. "The hell you mean 'those a us without 'em'? You as gifted as I am."

Closing his eyes, Demetri rubbed them with his fingertips. "I have explained this twice now." Dropping his hand, he looked at Peter. "I am not 'gifted'. My tracking ability is not a gift. It is a talent that was honed over time. Vampiric gifts do not change. They are the same from the moment they are discovered to the moment of death. If I stopped using my ability to find people, it would fade over time. My enhanced senses were passed down to me by my sire. Isabella's were passed to her by her sire. Our senses are a genetic evolution passed down through generations. It is in our venom. The things I could train my mate to do with her senses would blow your fucking mind. Before this year is over I could very easily teach her to do what I do, and if she wishes it so, I will. What I was getting at before is, if you were in a life or death situation, can you stand there and say with certainty you would be able get out of it alive without your voices telling you what to do? Or, would you have be able to avoid that same situation in the first place without them?"

When Peter's eyes cut away, Demetri crossed his arms. "This is the only advice I will ever give you, and it is only because I am entrusting you with the safety of my mate I am giving it at all. Never rest of your laurels. Never stop learning, never stop growing... just never stop because there is always going to be someone better than you. One day, sooner or later, you will have your moment. While odd with where you were raised you haven't had it yet, you will have it eventually, and nothing your voices tell you to do will avoid it. When that moment comes, when the Cosmos align just for you, you will have to make a choice, and that choice is what will define you for the rest of your existence."

Being nothing if not perpetuate at that point, Peter sneered. "How you know I ain't had it yet?"

Locking their eyes, Demetri leaned in so close to Peter's face, their noses nearly touched. "Because you are standing. right. here." Pulling back only slightly, he didn't release Peter's eyes as he continued. "You still think we can't change, and it's adorable. Hold tight to that blissful feeling. I envy you haven't had to face your absolution just yet. The crushing feeling that comes when you do is... indescribable."

Leaning back as far as he could to distance himself from the piercing gaze, Peter cleared his throat. "What the fuck happened to you?"

Demetri didn't miss a beat as he responded. "That is my business, and absolutely _none_ of yours." It wasn't said with any attitude. It was simply stated at the truth it was.

Taking a full step back for a little space, Peter rubbed at the back of his head at the base of his skull with his thumb, his lips pressed hard together. Finally breaking eye contact, he glanced at the girls, seeing them both looking back. Before they had a chance to make off the dance floor, Peter asked Demetri one last question. "You ever regret the one ya made?"

Shaking his head, he lifted his arm as he mate tucked herself into his side. "I never regret my choices. I make them for a reason."

Inexcusably hammered and having no idea how serious of a topic had just been discussed, Bella smiled wide up at Demetri. "So, what was your reason for choosing me?"

Peter once again watched as Demetri's entire being changed right in front of him as the tracker set his eyes on the little spitfire. He had seen couples mated almost as long as Demetri had been alive, other that were almost his age and freshly mated, and he had never seen such a total shift in the male. Males were always indulgent when it came to their mates, some overly so, but it was so extreme on the part of the tracker, Peter could only stare with a level of awe he never felt before as Demetri himself visibly melted under the gaze of his mate.

It was one of only a handful of times in his life he was left without a full understanding of what was going on. Even just a foot between them and Demetri was a completely different vampire, something he noticed four days ago in the catacombs the day he was enlisted as Bella's bodyguard. It wasn't just because the relationship was new, or because there were others present in the palace Bella once had a positive relationship with. It was something... else, something deeper, and he couldn't stop himself from trying to figure out what it was.

Eyes shifting across the room, Peter's lips pursed slightly. There was one person he could ask.

For Demetri, as he looked down into the liquid eyes of his mate, the world vanished around him, his attention only for her. That arm that wasn't around Bella raised, his hand cupping her cheek. His voice lowered and softened to velvet. "You were never a choice, Psihi Mou. You were a necessity."

Leaning into his palm, Bella smiled as she bit into her lip slightly. The problem she was having was, there were two of him, and she wasn't positive she was looking at the right one. She hadn't known vampires could get drunk, let alone see double, but the explanation Charlotte gave her made sense. Her organs didn't work, so there was no filtering out the alcohol, and she had no body heat to burn it off. Vampires could get exceptionally fucked up; it didn't take much, and they stayed drunk for much longer. It wasn't like it really mattered. It wasn't like a vampire party only lasted a couple of hours and everyone left. It could go on for days and no one gave a shit.

Then, of course, there was her complete lack of attention span. She was scatter brained on her best day, but with the added alcohol in her system, her ability to focus became next to nonexistent. As she opened her mouth to respond to Demetri, a server caught the corner of her eye, so instead of what she was going to say, "Ooh... wine" is what came out as she pulled herself free of Demetri's hold.

Left with little to do but chuckle and shake his head, Demetri waved off Charlotte when she offered to retrieve the newborn. "I'll get her. You two enjoy yourselves." Then, he looked at Peter, "and you think about what I said." With that, he vanished from their sights, catching up to his mate without issue.

Snagging her by the wrist, he lifted his arm and spun her around, her belting laughter drawing attention and amused smiled from those around them as she face planted into his chest. Lacing his fingers behind her back, he looked down at her with his own amused grin.

Bella, still laughing as she pushed herself back slightly, looked down as she grabbed the skirt of her dress, lifting it out of her was and exposing her foot. "I think I broke my shoe."

Chuckling in his throat, Demetri shook his head. "Darling, Charlotte took your shoes off two hours ago."

Lips puckering, Bella grunted. "Well... so much for perfect fucking memory."

Rolling his eyes, Demetri clicked his tongue. "Rarely, if ever, are drunken memories accurate. That aside, when was the last time you ate?" When her nose wrinkled and eyes started rolling slightly as she looked at the ceiling with a long sound of thought, Demetri hummed as he lifted an arm and crooked two fingers at a nearby server. "Wrong answer."

It was also the wrong assumption on both the part of Bella and the young lady that presented them a tray of wine. Bella perked up and picked up a glass, only to be left to pout when Demetri plucked it from her fingers and set it back down. Looking up at him with a full on toddler worthy pout, Bella whined. "I wanted that."

Smiling down at her, he gave a shallow nod of his head. "And you can have it..." her eyes lit up, and he continued. "After you eat." When Bella harrumphed, Demetri chuckled and looked at the server. "Blood."

While somewhat resigned, Bella still continued to pout as the server scampered off. Playing with buttons on Demetri's vest, she sighed quietly. "That was mean." The moment, however, didn't last longer than Demetri could snort before Bella once again perked right up. Her eyes ignited with an ominous light and her lips pulled up in the corners. Her voice, however, went straight to Demetri's dick. "So, I thought about it and I know what I want now."

Asking the Gods for strength, Demetri lifted a brow as he looked down at her. "Oh, and what's that?" Lowering his voice, he dipped his head and spoke in Bella's ear. "Keeping in mind his mate is present."

It was the tickle of his breath on her neck that pulled the giggle from her throat.

But she still made the sound.

A deep growl rumbled Demetri's chest, the roughness finding it's way to his voice, dripping down Bella's spine and nearly taking her out at the knees. "That little giggle is going to get you fucked."

The nip at the back of her jaw _did_ take out her knees.

Tightening his grip around Bella's waist, he held her flush against him, pulling his head back and locking his black eyes on her glossy ones.

Bella's voice was barely there after she licked her lips and let out a breath. "You don't play fair."

Demetri's expression turned wicked. "I never claimed otherwise." When she went to argue, he grinned. "No, I didn't. I said it would be your choice. I never I would keep my hands to myself until you made it."

Though she again went to open her mouth to argue, Bella just as quickly closed it. He was right; he hadn't. All he said was he wouldn't force her to do anything she wasn't ready to do as far as their relationship went, and she couldn't say he was. Sure, there were other things she hadn't wanted to do and was given little choice in the matter, but those had nothing to do with _them_ , and only to do with _her_.

When the server returned, she presented Demetri the tray she held, that contained four glasses. She hadn't been sure how much blood he had wanted her to get because he never told her, so she brought one for each of them, and a glass of wine for each as well.

Though her brow creased and face pinched when Demetri handed her a glass of blood, she didn't put up a fight with drinking it. She knew she was thirsty, but it wasn't until the thick liquid coated the back of her throat she realized just how much. She had the glass empty in just a few swallows and licked the blood from her lips as she held the glass out to Demetri. "That wasn't as bad as it normally is."

The server chuckled slightly at the statement, smiling at her new Mistress when the sound caught her attention. "This was obtained much more recently than what we keep on hand to preserve its freshness and warmth."

As she took the second glass from Demetri, Bella paused before it was to her lips. "What? Are you slicing humans open on demand tonight?"

There was a grin on the server's lips as she lifted a shoulder in a shallow shrug. "Pretty much, yes."

Not wholly surprised by the answer, but still mildly taken off guard by it, Bella choked on the mouthful of blood. She wasn't, however, sure if the noise she made was more of a snort or a gag. With a hard swallow and a loud gulp, she then used the back of her red gloved hand to wipe the crimson trail from her chin and chuckled. "Okay, then."

While acutely aware of Bella's even miniscule movements, Demetri's attention was over her head, his eyes following a body that thought he was slick. Crinkling in the corners, his eyes narrowed, though he didn't move more than just his eyes until his mate handed her glass back to him and he exchanged it for the promised glass of wine. Pure and undiluted irritation filtered across his face as he lowered his head to speak in his mate's ear. "Go play with Felix. I'll be right back."

When Demetri slid along her back, Bella turned her head, hoping to ask about his abrupt change in mood, but wasn't able to utter a word before he stepped away and glided across the room toward a pair of vampires talking to Peter. While she wanted to go after him, if only to find out what the hell annoyed him so much, the tone in his voice kept her from doing so. With one more glance Demetri's direction, a frown on her lips, she did as she was told and made her way back toward the dance floor.

His approach did not go unnoticed by everyone, but his voice caught one person completely off guard. With his head held high and his hands clasped behind his back, Demetri's eyes burned holes in the back of Peter's head. "I won't tell you what you want to know, so you run to my sire?"

Peter cringed so hard, his shoulders damn near covered his ears. Slowly turning his head to look over his shoulder, he was left with little more than the ability to stutter.

Demetri, with a shake of his head, lifted a hand and flicked his fingers to the in a clear 'shoo' motion. "Walk... away."

Clearing his throat, Peter nodded once. "Yeah... I'll do that."

Unmoving, Demetri watched as Peter slinked away, muttering 'child' under his breath. A long since dormant level of frost slid down his spine as he turned his head ever so slightly toward his sire, a man he hadn't seen he left the tracker to die. Holding Amun's gaze for a short moment, he clicked his tongue, deciding his course. Turning to face his sire fully, Demetri returned to his previous position with his hands behind his back. Switching to a language he hadn't used in longer than he had, he kept his voice perfectly pleasant. "And here I thought... nothing would ever get you to leave the desert."

It wasn't difficult to figure out where his childe's mind went, but Amun stood as straight spined as he could in the face of the living reaper. When he spoke, it was with a higher level of respect than Demetri recalled him havings. "It is not everyday your first turned mates, Demetrius."

Brow sliding up slightly, Demetri hummed in his throat. "Demetri, and I suppose that's true enough. Still doesn't explain what you're doing here, Amun. Even a demand of your presence has never been enough to drag your ass from the sand hilled Hell that is the Nile River Valley."

While there was no acid in his tone, it was clearly in Demetri's eyes, and it set Amun slightly on edge. He knew coming was a calculated risk, the past something that remains so fresh in the mind of an immortal, but he had no intention of overstaying his welcome. "I did not come to quarrel." Pushing past the hard snort from his childe, Amun silently cleared his throat. "I am merely here to offer you and your mate my congratulations... and to give you this, for old time's sake."

Demetri remained in his place as he watched Amun turn to a woman that was clearly his own mate, picking up a long wooden box, and shifting back to face him. There was zero interest on his face as his sire presented it to him, and he didn't make a move to see what it was.

When it was clear to Amun Demetri wasn't going to accept the offering, he pressed his lips together, but said nothing as he flicked the latches undone and, changing how he held the box, pulled open the lid and showed Demetri what was inside. Lifting his eyes from the present to the tracker, he saw Demetri tilt his head, and spoke. "This used to hold your attention for hours as a newborn."

Taking in the jewel encrusted dagger that laid in the carved wooden box, Demetri hummed in the back of his throat. It was with measured movement he reached for it, picking it up by the handle between his index finger and thumb, turning his wrist over. After a moment, without looking away from the dagger, he nodded ever so slightly. "I remember. It was so different than anything I had ever seen... and very shiny, though that seems to have been lost to time; among other things."

Emboldened by the minor change in Demetri's demeanor, Amun grinned. "Do you remember the story?"

Scoffing, Demetri was barely able to keep from rolling his eyes. "Of course. It was centered around sex, deceit, and murder... as all good stories are." He never lost the light hearted tone to his voice as he changed his hold of the weapon, gripping the handle in one hand and twisting the tip of the blade on the pad of a finger on his other. Clicking his tongue, he grinned as he looked at the slight bouncing off the blade. "Interestingly enough, did you know there are also stories of vampires that say we are as susceptible to silver as The Children of the Moon?" Finally, with a flick of his eyes, he looked back at Amun's, a very dark interest shining in the bloody depths. "Shall we see if they're true?"

Though Amun didn't say anything, his scent took on the heady scent of fear.

Licking his lips, Demetri took a half step forward, gently, as if it was made of glass, set the dagger back into the pillowed liner of the box it was presented in, gingerly closing the lid. As he was setting the latches back into place, he tsked. "I will give you... three minutes to get out of my city." Lifting his eyes to Amun's, he enunciated every syllable. "For old time's sake." Lightly running the tips of his fingers along the smooth wood, he gave his sire a deadly smile. "I suggest you don't waste them." Returning to where he had been standing, Demetri lifted his arm, pushing the cuff of his shirt and jacket and exposing his watch, and turning his attention to it. It wasn't impossible to get out of the city in that amount of time, but it certainly wasn't easy.

That was how he remained as Amun looked to his mate. He didn't twitch as the two backed away, saying something that Demetri didn't pay attention to. He didn't even look up as he blew a near silent whistle and Jane and Alec appeared to either side of him. Counting down the final seconds, his lips pulled into a teeth flashing smile as he fixed his sleeve and reclasped his behind his back.

They were still in the city.

Eyes dancing, it was then he turned back to the room, his orders hanging on the air between the twins as Demetri made his way back to his mate. "Kill them both."


	17. Chapter 17

A very angry, but very quiet, growl reached Esme's ear, pulling her attention from the newborn that shattered her family to Rosalie when she came to stand next to her. She said nothing as the tray in her daughter's hands was placed on the bar with more force than was necessary, but at the same time, Esme understood why Rose was so upset. Even as a human the girl came from privilege, so to be all but forced against her will to bow and scrape to others was something Rosalie was having a very hard time with. Especially when one of the people she was forced to show such regal-like respect to was someone like Bella; a two faced little bitch that was nothing like she presented herself to be.

Rosalie, as she waited for yet another dozen glasses to be placed on the tray she was told to carry, sighed and crossed her arms. "This is so ridiculous. How can she act as though she better than anyone like she is when she looks like her face was put through a paper shredder?"

Esme, ever the doting mother, set her hand lightly on Rose's forearm, a soothing tone to her voice, and an understanding light in her eyes. "Sadly, My Dear, it's just how some people are. In her case, though, her inner ugliness is finally shown on the outside as well. She'll never be able to look at herself and see the innocent girl she pretended to be, and only the vile creature she actually is, and vile creatures always have to face their comeuppance." Lightly patting Rosalie's arm, Esme then smiled. "She'll get hers. Sometimes, you simply have to be patient."

A very ugly sneer settled on Rosalie's face as she looked at Emse. "How much patience am I expected to have when I have to watch that whore snuggle up to that barbarian, present her a tray of blood and alcohol while she smiles and laughs like she hasn't a care in the world while Emmett is locked in a cage like some misbehaving animal for doing nothing but try to help her? It's insulting to a maddening degree."

Rosalie wasn't the only one with a very misconstrued way of looking at the situation the Cullen coven found themselves in, refusing to lay the blame for their predicament at the feet of who it belonged to; a member of their own family that didn't just pursue the girl, but actually stalked her at one point before inviting her into a world he should have kept her out of. All but two of them had welcomed Bella with open arms, but now that they had to face the consequences of their decisions, they refused to actually take responsibility, and instead blamed her for everything.

The day Demetri and Felix showed up at their door, by their own request, they lost their ability to see things clearly. Having their every mistake thrown in their faces like they had changed something in their rational minds. Then, to have the black mark of embarrassment slapped on their impeccable reputation by having an infant member of their coven taken away from them for the reason she was taken became too much for both Carlisle and Esme to bare. As a result of that, it forced a shift in their very care, and Bella went from someone they cared for to public enemy number one, all through no fault of her own.

Their new perception of the situation was cemented when Esme saw what had become of Edward. What he did prior to being given as a 'gift' to a member of the Guard was completely irrelevant to Cullen matriarch because in her mind, whatever was done to the girl was fully justified. In Esme's opinion, Bella deserved whatever happened to her for what she did to her family, including a forced submission to her emotionally and mentally abusive son.

For Carlisle, he had much the same mindset, and it came down to simple cause and effect. Bella destroyed everything he had worked for centuries to build, and absolutely nothing that could be done to her was good enough retribution. She deserved far more than what that wolf did to her, and he had spent an exorbitant amount of time trying to come up with a plan to ensure before he killed her, she suffered tremendously first. He was going to make her pay for every last slight and smear against him, even if he had to die to do it.

Nevermind the fact none of their thoughts or intended actions were justified, they didn't care. The only way they saw to right the wrongs against them was for Bella to die, and one way or another, they were convinced they could make that happen.

A very motherly smile pulled at Esme's lips as she looked at her daughter, her eyes locking on Rosalie's. "Never fear, Baby Girl. This will be all soon be over, and our lives will go back to how they used to be before that girl ever came and fucked it all up. Mommy will make sure of it."

On the other side of the room, completely unaware of the unfolding plots against her, Bella was actually smiling and laughing like she didn't have a care in the world, because she didn't. So far as she was concerned, everything was as perfect as it could be, and there was little in the way of bringing down her mood.

That light snack Demetri had given her perked her right up, and she was drunker than she had any conceivable right to be. Even the massive swarm of bodies and refusal by others to stop calling her Mistress did nothing to dim her spirits, and as she looked up at Demetri, who hadn't left her side since he returned from speaking to who he told her was his sire, she felt whole for the first time since she woke up. There was no hole in her soul when she was in his arms, and she felt as though she would burst when she looked in his eyes. She just stood next to him, pressed to his side, his arm around her back and his fingers wrapped around her hip, her hand placed lightly on his chest as she laid her head against the front of his shoulder.

For whatever reason, as much as the two couldn't seem to help themselves when it came to picking on each other, Demetri and Peter repeatedly gravitated back into the presence of the other. Bella didn't mind. She liked Peter and was quickly falling for the charms of Charlotte. She was over the moon excited when she was told Char would be staying in Italy with Peter, and Demetri, ever indulgent of his mate, simply chuckled at the pig-like squeal that came out of her when she was told.

During one of the separations of the pairs, Peter had given Charlotte a very simple set of instructions, and that was to make sure that betty was never left on her own. It was something simple enough to do since the two girls hit it off as well as they did and seemed to already have formed an unbreakable bond, which only added another layer of protection Peter _knew_ the baby was going to eventually need. Regardless of Bella's obliviousness of the coming storm, Peter was as on top of the situation as he could be, and was mentally cataloging the necessary preparations that would need to be made in order to ensure the girl's very survival.

Over the course of the last few days he had been put in charge of the infant during her fella's absence, he learned one very important lesson about the girl, and that was just how innocent she actually was. The fact that, in less than a week she had figured out how to sidestep his voices and actually surprise him didn't mean shit, because she didn't know exactly how she did it, and it wasn't done out of malicious intent. He had discovered the girl didn't actually have a malicious bone in her body, and the only reason she was so deadset against the Cullens was because of her sire. If anyone else would have bitten her, she wouldn't have the aggression against others she had, even _if_ she saw someone kill her maker, and regardless of any justified anger.

He also knew her innocence played some part of Demetri's attraction to her, and not because of his clear ability to corrupt that innocence, but because he saw that innocence as something to protect. Demetri was a mean mother fucker, something he owned about himself, and Bella was his polar opposite. Sure, she was going to have some homicidal tendencies because of who her sire was, but the thing about that was, she would never have to lift a finger in that department, because she had Demetri to very enthusiastically carry out her bloody desires.

There was a reason Bella didn't see any fear in his eyes the day Peter revealed his presence in Gardens, and that was because he didn't feel any. He didn't know exactly how it was going to happen, but he did know he wasn't going to spend a near millennia tied to Italy, even though he wasn't lying when he said he was willing to do it to keep his mate safe and off Demetri's radar.

What he did lie about was the reason he was there in the first place.

While the reason he gave was believable enough, because he didn't actually see a reason to make a lady suffer for thirty some odd years with a hole in her face, that wasn't the actual reason, and he was well aware of the fact Demetri knew he lied. All he could do now was hope he was given a little more time before he was called on that, because he didn't have an explanation just yet. He had done what he was told to do by the voices in his head, and he learned a long time ago bad things happened to him and those he cared about if he didn't, and there was no way Demetri could understand that; especially after the conversation he had with the tracker earlier in the evening.

At this point, he was all but convinced he was sent there because of Bella, he just didn't know _why._ She had no venomous connection to him, and before he actually met her and got to know her a little bit, her dying wouldn't have changed his life in the slightest. Now, however, he knew without having to be told, he would mourn her passing for centuries to come, if not for the rest of his life, if he wasn't successful in keeping her alive.

Something else he learned over the last few days was, he needed to throw everything he thought he knew out the window, because he had been wrong on far too many things since he got to Italy, and his preconceived notions were doing him no favors. If anything, they were clouding his judgement and making it more difficult to get the whole picture, something he sorely needed. There was no logical reason in his mind Bella was able to get around his voices, and the fact she was able to told him more about her than anything else. It was nothing bad, but if she was able to do it once, she would be able to do it again, and that wasn't something he could allow to happen.

For everything he did know, or had been able to figure out and piece together, he didn't know what was coming. He had no idea the scale Hell was coming to Earth, or who was going to be playing the part of the Devil. He had no idea when fire was going to rain down on them, but he did know if either Bella or Demetri died, not even God himself would be able to save the planet from the survivor of the pair. Humans and supernaturals alike would burn until there was no one left to blame because Peter _had just_ _figured out_ why he saw the shift he saw in Demetri when the two were touching. The only reason it took him so long was because it was such an incredibly rare occurrence, it's not the first thing that comes to mind.

Male vampires were absolutely soulless monsters, not giving a shit about anything but their next meal or lay, but females were not. They remained the fairer of the two sexes, and while it was true they were actually extremely picky when it came to the more basic desires of their lives, that pickiness came from somewhere. Their list of mating criteria came from somewhere, and while the order of importance was dictated by their vampiric life experiences, the list itself came from their retained soul, and they knew someone somewhere would give them everything they wanted.

No one knew why the female kept her soul when she was turned, but regardless of anything else, they did, and it was something to be extremely jealous of when finding out another male stumbled upon the one female that truly did belong to him. No one would ever be able to outmatch Demetri when it came to how he took care of Bella, because no one would be fighting against him for a run of the mill female. They would be fighting him for something far more precious to him than just a mate, because Isabella Swan was born with the soul that was so violently ripped from Demetri when he was turned all those centuries ago, and was the reason for the shift Peter saw in him.

The reason this was such a rare occurrence was because not every female vampire held the soul of a living male. It was literally nothing more than fucking luck, and something neither one of the two would ever know until they ran into each other. While under normal circumstances, it would take a couple of hours for the male to become enthralled with a female enough to want her as his mate, it would be near instant in the case of a male finding _his_ female. He might not necessarily know what was driving his actions, but that wouldn't mean shit. As a matter of fact, it would certainly drive that male to adopting an injured, orphaned female in a fucking heartbeat and without a second thought.

Peter wasn't stupid. He was positive at this point Demetri knew what Bella was to him, and all of the questions Peter had been asking himself when it came to Demetri's actions when it came the girl were answered with that revelation. Another thing that came with the revelation was just how much he thought he knew was wrong, and how little of the relationship between the two he actually understood. However, just because he didn't have a personal understanding of their relationship didn't at all mean he didn't possess a full grasp of the dangers it presented.

When it came to Charlotte, Peter could actually tell her no, he just didn't want to. Demetri, on the other hand, was fully incapable of denying Bella a damn thing, and with the situation with her being what it was, his inabilities were now complete and total liabilities. Liabilities that would undoubtedly lead to one of the two getting killed if shit wasn't monitored by an unbiased outsider with the ability to control a newborn.

So far as Peter was concerned, at this point in time, Demetri was completely wrong about stark realizations, unless of course he once again misunderstood what the older vampire meant when he said there was a no such thing, which was entirely possible. However, considering the fact he just fucking had one, Peter wasn't completely inclined to give Demetri the benefit of the doubt on that particular stance of his.

There were so many people that wanted that baby dead, more so than she had any idea about, probably more than Demetri was willing to entertain, and even with as dangerous as the tracker was, even with everything he had in his arsenal, it was going to come down to sheer numbers versus experience.

Jerking back like he was struck, Peter blinked in shock at the hand that was waved in front of his face. Shaking his head to dispel the thoughts that had taken over, he grinned at the baby vampire that was looking back up at him with concern on her face, asking him if he was alright. Letting out a chuckle, he nodded at Bella as he clicked his tongue. "Perfect, Little Lady. Butcha know, Darlin', I didn't get all spiffed up a monkey suit like this for nothin'. I think ya owe me a dance."

Not giving her a chance to decline, or Demetri time to react, Peter grabbed a giggling Bella by the wrist and pulled from her man's side and toward the dance floor.

Demetri, looking down at where he mate was just at, wrinkled his nose as he called after Peter. "Hey, that's mine." Shaking his head with a hard sigh when both his mate and Peter laughed a little louder, he grunted. "Ass face." Glancing down at the blonde also left behind, he grinned at her. "I suppose you find him humorous as well?"

Giggling behind her hand, Charlotte crossed her arms and shrugged a shoulder. "Used to it, Sug. Peter gonna do what Peter gonna do, butcha know what? While he got your mate..." grinning wide and uncrossing her arms, she held out her hands, "...you got his."

Chuckling as he glanced to the ceiling as if the thought never occurred to him, Demetri returned his eyes to Charlotte as he presented her arm. "Would you care to dance?"

Pretending to swoon, Charlotte placed her hand on her chest and gasped. "Why, Honey." Setting one hand on Demetri's arm, she picked up the skirt of her dress with the other. "I'd thought ya'd never ask."

While Charlotte allowed herself to be led to the dance floor, she made sure to keep Demetri a measured distance away from Peter and the newborn, his eyes when he looked at her telling her without saying a word he needed some time with Bella without Demetri's interference. She didn't need to know why right at the moment. She knew he would tell her when he was ready to reveal his secrets; he always did. She also knew him well enough to know when he went silent like he did before he pulled Bella away, there was something going on in his head, and he needed some time with it. She wasn't sure if those fucking voices of his were talking a mile a minute and he needed to sort it out, or if it was something else, but the way Peter was looking at Bella right at the moment, she had a very sinking feeling forming in the pit of her stomach, and for a very good reason.

Peter was scared.

It wasn't obvious. You wouldn't see it if you didn't know the man, but she did. It was in his eyes, though buried under several other more dominant emotions. Clearly, he wasn't afraid _of_ the infant, he was scared _for_ her. All at once, Charlotte was momentarily transported back to her own infancy, the last time she saw that tiny spark in the back of his eyes. What followed the only time she ever saw it was something she truly wished she could forget, and if she was seeing it again while he looked at someone he had no real connection to, she was positive she didn't want any form of explanation and was ready, willing, and able to follow whatever other orders Peter gave her.

Just because they left the army didn't mean jack or shit. It was the way they were both raised, and it was what they both fell back on in times of uncertainty. It was just over 70 years since they ran from the war torn lands of their vampiric youths, and even if vampires didn't remember every fucking thing, it was something no one who experienced it would ever forget.

There was a part of her that thought she had grounds to be miffed over the situation, but she couldn't bring herself to feel it. When she accepted the invitation to the party, she had no idea she would be dealing with any other bullshit than what Peter decided to stir up because he got bored or caught a case of cabin fever. At the same time, though, she also knew when dealing with a brand spankin' new baby, fuckary and bullshit was astonishingly abundant for as little time as an infant had in their new life to fuck shit up.

Unfortunately, for whatever or whoever was after that girl, Peter liked her. She didn't know enough about Demetri to have an understanding about whatever part he could play when it came to Bella's safety, but she knew everything about Peter; the biggest of which was, if he liked you, nothing would ever fucking happen to you so long as he was alive.

Charlotte would absolutely admit to being a ditz at times. She didn't see it as a character flaw. It actually served her quite well when people thought she was dumber than she was because that meant she was underestimated, and underestimation of your opponent was almost certain death. In this instance, her ditziness had nothing to do with any of that, and everything to do with the fact she was putting more stock in Peter's ability to protect what amounted to a stranger over a male's ability to protect his mate... and she didn't even realize she was doing it. It was just that she knew Peter inside and out, and had never even seen a Volturi guard prior to the one that picked her up from the airport. All she had seen of Demetri thus far was a whole lot of bravado, but no attempt on his part to actually get physical with Peter, and past experience with her man told her it was fear that stopped Demetri, even though she was completely wrong on the matter and missed out on the several times Demetri physically put Peter in his place.

Didn't matter, though; especially to Demetri. He wasn't oblivious to any of what was going on behind the blonde's red eyes, and he fought a smirk that threatened to surface in the face of her doubt he could see shining in the crimson depths. He honestly thought it was beyond fucking adorable the way Peter chose to protect his mate from the horrors of their world. She didn't know shit of where she had agreed to live for a year, and that would actually lead to two different outcomes. The first would be she would learn the real way things were run, and thus leave with a level of respect for the Italian coven that wasn't normal to have. Or, the other way, is she would be lured into believing the bullshit by those that resided within the walls that didn't necessarily want to reside within the walls.

Either way, it hardly fucking mattered.

Demetri didn't have a solitary fuck to give about anyone thought of him, save for his mate. Whether or not this female thought he was a worth a damn for anything was irrelevant to his life, both in the moment and in the time to come, but she was precious as shit in the way she was clearly comparing him to Peter in every way she could. There was no lateral equation to be made between them, but it was cute to watch her try and make them as her eyes cut back and forth between him and her male.

Now, he wasn't a mind reader, so whether or not that was what she was doing, he didn't actually know. It was merely a guess on his part, and one he thought was a pretty good one. It was natural for females to compare the male they were with to random guys they meet, mostly to shore up the decision they made, but in this case, he was perfectly aware that wasn't what she was doing. Her male was charged with the protection of another male's mate, and she was likely trying to figure out why such a thing would be needed because it wasn't common for a female to allow herself to become the mate of someone who couldn't protect her, thus having someone else do it for him.

That, was something, he was perfectly capable of understanding. Bella had spent the vast majority of the time since she received his mark with Peter, and that was all but unheard of in their world, because of the overwhelming need a man had to be around his freshly marked female. But, recently mated or not, and as much as he didn't like it, Demetri did still have a job to do. No one else in the world cared he had a new mate waiting for him to have the proper time to spend with her, so the best he could do to ensure her safety was to entrust another mated male to keep an eye on her. It wasn't that he didn't trust Felix and Alec, he did. It was that there was never a guarantee they would remain at the den the entire time he was gone, or that they wouldn't be sent with him, thus leaving Bella, who was still more or less unable to properly defend herself, to her own protection.

What at that point Demetri had no way of knowing was that he was only partly right in his assessment, and what Charlotte was actually doing as she sized him up next to Peter had nothing whatsoever to do with Peter's position as Bella's bodyguard and everything to do with whether or not the two would actually be able to work together when the time came. The two snipped and snapped at each other like two old betties in a beauty parlor, so she certainly had her doubts. She also doubted Peter had opened his fucking mouth and _told_ Demetri just how deep shit creek was. She knew how Peter operated, but he was playing with the life of someone's mate by keeping his mouth shut and not giving the tracker so much as a head's up. She also knew if she told him as much, she would get the same song and dance she always got about him either not having enough information yet, or she just needed to trust him.

It wasn't about trust; it was about the fact when Demetri found out Peter was keeping pertinent information from him about his mate, Demetri was gonna fucking kill him, or at the very least give it the ol' college try because, again, Charlotte didn't know enough about Demetri to know if he was actually capable of killing Peter or not. What she did know, though, was if Demetri called for Peter's head, he was gonna get it someway or another.

Across the dance floor, Peter retained the smile on his face as he twirled the laughing infant around, giving himself an additional couple of minutes to formulate in his mind what he wanted to tell her before he handed her back to her fella. He wasn't in the business of scaring such a young vampiress, but there were a couple of things she needed to know, and one he pulled her back to his arms, he grinned wider at her. "You havin' a good time, Little Darlin'?"

Bright eyes and a brighter smiled, Bella giggled like a child as she nodded her head. "I am, actually. I didn't think I was going to, honestly. I don't normally like shit like this, and I didn't really want to come in the first place, but everyone here is actually pretty nice, believe it or not." The she smirked slightly. "Even if they are only being nice to me because they're afraid of Demetri."

Laughing quietly, Peter flashed her a wide grin. "Yeah, that's gonna have some kind a effect on the way them bastards act, but then again, you so damn sweet, I doubt they could be mean ta ya if they tried."

Rolling her eyes, Bella snorted. "Or... they're just flat out scared of me telling on them."

Lifting a brow as he continued to lead her around the floor, Peter licked his lips. "Wouldja?"

Bella didn't even need to think about her answer as she lowered her voice and looked Peter in the eyes. "In a fucking heartbeat if I thought it was necessary." Shrugging slightly, she hummed. "I don't think it'll actually come to that, but you never really know, ya know? People will do what people will do, and if I don't like what they decide to do, and I can't handle it, because let's be honest, Peter, I don't handle many things very well, telling Demetri what happened will let me know if I just overreacted or if my irritation with others is actually justified, which..." shaking her head, "it very rarely is, I guess."

Chuckling again, Peter dip her back before clicking his tongue. "You a baby, Little Darlin'. Ain't nothin' you gonna do for the next little while gonna be all that justified. It ain't like ya can help it, though, so don't beat yaself up over losin' ya tempter. You got a lotta shit workin' against ya, not the least a which being that sire a yours." When Bella turned away from him, he forced her to return her eyes to his, and he sighed. "I know he tough subject for ya Little One, but hear me out, ight?"

He gave her a minute to decide if she was going to, and after she scratched at the graze marks on her chest, she nodded with a sigh of her own, so he continued. "I know you been told the fella that bitcha the rulin' force in your life, and he is till ya get older. It sucks, I won't lie 'bout that, but whatcha gotta do Baby Darlin', is use that shit. Don't be afraid a it, cause it ain't goin' nowhere, but don't be so scare a the crap that pops inta your head. I know it ain't all that pleasant, and I ain't tryin'a make light a whatcha dealin' with, but I'm here ta tell ya, it'll get betta if ya stop fightin' against it like ya are. You ain't just fightin' against thoughts. You fightin' against a part a who ya are now, and that ain't a fight you gonna win, Dolly. All you gonna do is hurtcha self while tryin' not ta hurt someone else."

Prior to being led onto the dance floor, Bella had thought nothing would ruin her mood, but she was wrong. She did appreciate what Peter was trying to do, but at the moment, she didn't want to deal with it. She knew she wasn't going to be given a choice, and this conversation was going to be had whether she liked it or not, but she would have liked to have had it either way earlier in the night or at some point after the party was over.

Instead, she shook her head, averting her eyes once again as she took a step away from him. "I don't know how."

Face softening, Peter leaned toward her, dipping and turning his head to speak in her ear. "I do."

Rearing back from the two words, Bella's eyes went wide as she felt as if the breath was stolen from her. Demetri had been trying, but when everything is in your head, she didn't think there was a lot anyone else could do. There was hope beyond measure in her eyes as she looked back up at him when he pulled back. "Really?"

Peter nodded slowly with a 'mmhmm'. Honestly, it wasn't hard. Demetri had been on the right track, he just hadn't taken it far enough. It wasn't something that could be handled in little spurts of strenuous activity when shit got overwhelming. It had to be constant so it didn't build up on her like it was, which meant Peter got to use her pent up aggression to teach her how to defend herself under the guise of leveling out her less than stellar thought process.

He had heard a lot of excuses over the past few days, mostly about how no one knew who the fuck this James guy was so they didn't know the full extent of shit, but honestly, it was common sense. If you don't know, always assume the worst and act accordingly, backing off little by little until you find what works. Sure, her sire was pretty much a ghost; most nomads were, making it difficult to get the actual degree of fuckary. In this case, though, it was pretty easy to see there was something not right with the situation and other avenues needed to be explored. Peter didn't blame Demetri for not pushing her. She was very easy to hurt at the moment, and he didn't want to hurt her. It went against his very core, but Peter didn't have that problem. She was a charge to him, little more in his eyes than a baby in the army. She needed to learn, he had the tools to teach her, and they had the time to get it done.

At least he hoped so.

It might have been taking a very simplistic stance on his part, but they could be friends later. He was actually very good with kids, and he did know how to handle them properly these day. This one made it easy for him. She was an eager little thing, and tried her best once someone took the time to calm her fears. When the time came for her to fight for her life, there wasn't going to be any. Sure, she could toss Alec's tiny ass twenty feet across the gardens. He watched her do it. He was the one that whistled when she did it.

Big fucking deal.

The question that needed answered was how she would fare against someone that wasn't afraid to go toe to toe with Demetri if her ass was the one that went flying, because it was going to happen. Now, whether or not Peter could actually beat Demetri in a dogfight was anyone's guess. He honestly didn't know. He considered them pretty evenly matched, but again, he didn't know because he never faced Demetri before. He did know how hard the fucker could hit, and he wasn't in any hurry to feel it again, but he was determined to keep the infant alive, and if that meant her fella whooped Peter's ass after Peter whooped hers, then so be it.

Looking into her hope filled eyes, he honestly couldn't help but grin. She was absolutely adorable, and when he told her he would help her next time she was in his care, she pounced on him, wrapping her arms around his next in a strangle hold as she repeatedly thanked him in his ear. He really didn't have any idea the shit going through her head, but if she was that excited at the prospect of making it stop, he had to assume it was worse than it had been.

It wasn't necessarily him drawing a parallel between his voices and her thoughts, but they worked a lot of same ways. The longer you ignore them, the more persistent they became. In his case, the voices got louder and louder until they drowned out everything else and he was forced to listen to them. In her case, the thoughts got progressively darker and more sinister, leading her to have a difficult time to walk away and not act on what she thinks. It could be curbed, but not stopped completely, and that was something he would make sure she understood. She would always have them so long as her venom belonged to someone else, and a year is a long time to visualize murdering everyone you know in increasingly fucked up ways.

It was as she was letting Peter go Bella found herself wrapped back up in Demetri's arms, and she looked up at him with a blinding smile and excited eyes. "Peter knows how to help me with these horrible thoughts, and he said he would."

Smiling at her, Demetri cut his eyes to Peter, who just grinned back. "Did he now?"

As Bella nodded at him, Peter crossed his arms. "I ain't tryin'a step on your toes or nothin' like it, so don't be gettin' all pissed off, now. I get it might be hard to get the jist of if you ain't the one hearing shit that no one else can, but let me tell ya somethin'. Them fucked up thoughts a hers work more or less the same as my voices do. I know whatcha said before, but just cause ya said it don't make it true. They ain't goin' nowhere anytime soon. I know how ta curb that shit so it don't get so bad, and I had ta learn it the hard way. I know I'm just the babysitter, but I don't see no reason she gotta suffer thinkin' 'bout killin' you if she don't gotta."

Demetri glanced down at his mate, who wouldn't look at him, and sighed as he returned his eyes to Peter. "Just remember, Captain, what I told you. If I torture for fun, just imagine what I would do an actual reason."

Peter's entire face pinched as the voices in his head gasped at the reminder. That was never a good reaction. Wrapping his arms around Charlotte as she leaned her back against his chest, he shook his head. "Yeah... that don't get no less fucked the more it said."

Winking at Peter with a smirk on his lips, Demetri then returned his eyes to his mate. "Do you want to stay a little longer, or have you had your fill of others for the time being?"

Looking up at him with shock on her face, Bella blinked at him. "Can we go? Like... that's not considered rude or anything?"

Over extending his arm to uncover his watch, he glanced at the time with a grunt. "It's been ten hours, Psihi Mou." Wiggling his arm to fix his sleeve, his face leveled out. "At this point, I believe our departure is about the only way anyone else will leave."


	18. Chapter 18

A rock was settled low in Bella's stomach, but she wasn't sure how to describe it. She wasn't scared, she knew that much, but when she asked Demetri for help with her dress, she saw his eyes darken as a result. Since she had never been in the situation she just put herself in before, she began to second guess the request and found herself asking if she was ready for anything else besides just getting out of the slightly too tight ball gown.

Changes are, she would have been able to do it on her own just fine had Aurora believed in the wondrous invention called a zipper, but she didn't. When Bella asked her about it, there was a long, drawn out explanation about how it took away from the esthetic of the overall dress, as well as zippers being more than a little irritating to the skin. Aurora had also told her that even adult vampires had a difficult time not breaking them because the teeth never latched together tight enough, and the thread that would hold it on was too thin and brittle to hold up against a vampire's movements. So, because they were useless pieces of stupid, Aurora always opted for a lace-up back. It might have been a gorgeous addition to a dress, but it all but guaranteed the wearer couldn't take it off without help if they didn't want the dress destroyed in the process.

Aurora might have been a very mild mannered vampiress that put up with her newborn attention span when it came to getting her to stand still long enough to get what she needed to make sure Bella's dress fit properly, something she was promised would only need to happen two, maybe three more times before she would have them perfected and never need to do it again. At the same time, she was also slightly terrifying in the department of Bella not wanting to find out just how pissed off the tiny woman would get if she turned her beautiful creations into single use scraps. Something she knew would happen if she attempted to untie the laced up back herself.

So, after she and Demetri made their great escape from the ballroom, and as they were walking up the steps, Bella missed one and stumbled, leading to a very amused Demetri carrying her to their rooms. After she was set down, and before he could go to his room to change, Bella had leaned against her door and smiled at him as she slowly opened it. "Help me with my dress?"

Those five words seemed to have flipped a switch in Demetri's mind, and the smirk that pulled at his lips made her very glad she was leaning against something when her legs started to shake. All he did in that moment, though, was hold out a hand toward her room, and followed her when she entered the rest of the way, closing her door behind them.

The design of her dress and the request for his help was what led her to holding onto the post of her footboard, Demetri behind her, and slowly and gently loosening the cords that held her dress closed.

While every crisscross did its job to build up the anticipation in her gut, it didn't completely hold her focus, and the silence between them allowed her mind to take a route she would very much rather it didn't. Demetri wasn't even halfway done with his task when she finally spoke, and her voice was both soft and curious. "Can I ask you something?"

Once again cursing whoever it was that laced up his mate's dress, discovering near immediately they didn't know what the fuck they were doing when it came to a corset, Demetri tilted his head as he pulled at the thick red cord. "Of course."

Brows drawing down, Bella kept her focus on the smooth wood of her bedpost. "Is it possible to kill a vampire just by draining them of their venom?"

Eyes snapping up to lock on the back of his mate's head, Demetri froze for a moment, caught completely off guard but the unexpected question. Blinking himself back to his body, he did give it a moment's thought as he went back to what he was doing, contemplation covering his voice. "I suppose... it could be possible if enough is depleted to cease brain function, but with self-preservation for our kind being what it is, I cannot imagine the body not healing itself of whatever injury it sustained before that happened and the victim falling into something resembling suspended animation until such time as its venom replenished. I told you the day we met our bodies are masters of revival, and can overcome mind boggling injuries. We can even lose our heads and live so long as the brainstem itself isn't damaged during decapitation. So long as our brain remain intact, there is very little that can actually kill us."

Clicking his tongue and humming in his throat, he then continued. "That's not to say decapitation isn't a horrible thing to the one it happens to. I've been told that the mind is still completely aware of what happens to the body, but that's still not an immediate death. A very unpleasant one, but not immediate. The head itself will remain completely functional for an indefinite amount of time until the brain itself is destroyed; either by crushing it or burning it." Flicking his eyes up to once again look at the back of Bella's head, he took a shot in the dark. Dropping his eyes again, he lowered his voice. "Is that how you thought of killing me?"

Closing her eyes against the visions the reminder of those thoughts provoked, Bella leaned her head against her bedpost. Swallowing back the whimper, she slowly shook her head, but it was more like she was rolling her head along the curve of the wood. "No." Picking her head back up, she finally turned it to look over her shoulder, but didn't actually allow herself to look at Demetri. "Those were much worse." Dropping her head for a moment, she then returned her attention to her bedpost. "And I know they would work."

While the tone of her voice clearly said she didn't want to continue the conversation, it was her use of plurals that caught Demetri's attention. Leaning forward, Demetri looked at Bella's profile, his voice prompting. "They?"

Turning away from him, Bella cut her eyes to the wall across the room for a moment before she actually allowed herself to look Demetri in the eye. "I was really angry when you went to Rome."

Considering the fact that assignment came five hours after he sank his teeth into her neck, and he was gone for far longer than he said he would be, he could fully understand why she was so pissed off at him for it. He also knew if she possessed a vindictive bone in her body, he would have paid for that when he got back instead of playing her newborn games against the Mistresses over the color scheme of their mating ball. He didn't think repeatedly pretending to change their minds over something as stupid as what color to wear to a party was anything more than petty, and couldn't even be considered on par with something like Bella throwing a hissy fit. Bella having a hissy fit was generally pretty destructive, and since nothing irreplaceable got broken, it really wasn't that big of a deal.

Honestly, when he walked into the lounge after he returned, he fully expected to have something thrown at him, or punched in the face, or some kind of extremely negative reaction to his presence. What happened instead was him getting tackled. Not just hard enough to knock him to his back either, but with enough force to actually make him slide across the floor and halfway into in the hall before he stopped. He had been prepared for a lot of shit in that moment, but all his overly excited mate did was straddle his chest to keep him where she wanted him, and began to talk a mile a minute about how he had to help her get back at Athenodora and Suplica, who once again got under her skin. He did cut his eyes to Peter for an explanation as to what the fuck he missed, but he was given nothing but a shrug in response, prompting him to look back up at Bella with a nod and an okay. If all she wanted to do was have some fun at someone else's expense for a while and not take his head off at the shoulders, despite the fact he might have actually deserved it, he would absolutely indulge her.

However, finding out her reaction to his return was because at some point over the time he was gone the Mistresses had redirected her anger from him to them, and looking at his mate now and seeing his absence had had a very clearly devastating result to her, he hummed in his throat as he leaned back and finished unlacing the final two crisscrosses needed to be able to loosen the back enough for the dress to be removed. Cocking his head as he slipped his finger under the cord like ribbon, he plucked the remaining crisscrosses from the bottom of her shoulder blades to the top of the dress as he spoke. "Seems to me... that an extended absence from the guard might be beneficial to my overall health for the time being." Dipping his head, he whispered in his mate's ear. "What do you think, My Love?"

Shock didn't even begin to cover what shot down Bella's spine as she whipped around, her hand coming up to her chest to hold her dress up, looking at Demetri with wide eyes and parted, slightly quivering lips. There was a hard exhale of her breath, making her voice light and airy, but it did nothing to cover the emotion in it. "You can do that?"

Demetri merely shrugged a shoulder as he looked her in the eyes and set his hands on her hips. "Of course I can. You know I'm coven not guard, and I told you the day you arrived here the only reason I serve at all is out of sheer boredom, though with you around I doubt that will be a problem for the foreseeable future. Besides, while I am certainly the best at it, I am not the only tracker that has lent my talents to Aro, so he can survive without mine for awhile."

Once again jolting at the shock of his words, Bella grunted. "You're not?"

Demetri, however, snorted at the question. "Certainly not. You didn't honestly think out of 150 vampires, I was the only one that could sniff someone out of hiding, did you?" When her facial expression clearly said she did, Demetri shook his head with a quiet chuckle. "Very flattering, Neos, but even for as spectacular as I am at what I do, I cannot be everywhere at once, and do on incredibly rare occasion have some help. There are five others, though two of them are third string at best, and that is being kind because I am positive they have little more than a bag a parlor tricks that anyone is capable of doing with just a little bit of effort on their part. But, they are adamant enough in their unproven talents to keep them around on a just in case basis."

Tightening his grip on his mate's hips, Demetri pulled her closer. "All you have to do is say the word."

Bella was very quick to nod, and she did it quite fast. "Yes! Whatever word needs to be said, it's fucking said." Then, she whimpered. "Just.. don't leave me again."

A very soft sigh left Demetri's nose as he released her hip and instead cupped her cheek, looking her in the eyes. "Agapimenos, listen very carefully. I will never leave you, but what you need to understand is whether I'm gallivanting across the planet or I never leave the palace again, I am still going to be the Head of the Guard, and as such, I will still have a job to do. No one else on this Earth cares about our recent mating. They are still going to do extremely stupid shit, and there will be times, whether we like it or not, I will be the one that has to deal with it; most assuredly if a newborn slips their supervision, as they are shockingly prone to doing. Especially if they are being mistreated."

Looking up at him through her lashes, Bella licked her lips as her brows drew down. "You mean that really happens? It's not just... like, special circumstances? Like what happened with me?"

Shaking his head, Demetri's face took on a somewhat tender, though mostly irritated expression as he released her completely and crossed his arms. "What happened with you was the result of a group of idiots thinking they're something more than what they are... which is a group of idiots. What I'm talking about when it comes to mistreatment is fully intentional on the older vampire's part against a younger one. We've already discussed the fact asshole humans turn into asshole vampires, and if that asshole human intentionally mistreated those who were smaller or younger than them, they'll continue to in this life as well. Add in a sire's position over a newborn, and it's a recipe for disaster. Newborns aren't as stupid as they are made out to be, and they do know when someone is hurting them. If the abuse gets bad enough, they will run away. We do our best to intervene before it gets to that point, but we aren't always successful and are sometimes too late. When that happens, there are several decisions that need to be made very quickly, and that newborn needs to be found as fast as possible."

A small smile pulled at the corner of Bella's lips. "Which is where you come in, right?"

Nodding slowly, Demetri grinned back. "Exactly. No one can find a newborn faster than I can once I meet their sire, and while Felix deals with them, I go wrangle the newborn."

Crossing her own arms, Bella shifted slightly as an uncomfortable wave rolled over her. "That's the second time I've heard that phrase. What does it mean?"

Making a thoughtful expression, Demetri hummed as he clicked his tongue. "Do not take offence to this but, newborns... while smarter than given credit for by most, are actually quite stupid." Uncrossing an arm, he held up a finger when his mate glared at him. "What I mean by that is, they have barely an understanding of their world around them, and they run off instinct over rationality. They far surpass us older vampires in strength, but they don't know how to use it properly, and they will always do the obvious, which makes them very easy to control. However, you do not go at a newborn head on. You will lose, every single time. What it means to wrangle a newborn is, you lure them into a situation you control, take away their every advantage, and either talk them down, or force them down. That decision is made for you by how much they suffered. The younger they are, generally the easier it is, because they haven't suffered as much as someone older."

Bella's glare did not lesson as her eyes sparked. "So, that's what you did with me? Wrangled?"

Demetri didn't even mince words when he answered. "Of course it is. It's the only proven way to get an abused newborn to stop running long enough to attempt to save their life. It's not often, though the number has increased over recent years, that a newborn cannot be given a second chance to learn how to abide by the rules of our world in a much safer and healthier environment. That said, however, we take exposure risks extremely seriously and if a newborn is past the point of being able to be taught, we are given little choice in whether or not that newborn is allowed to live. If it comes down to destroying the newborn, the word severe doesn't even begin to describe the punishment for the sire.

"You, Agapi Mou, were a special case from start to finish, not the least of which reasons being at no point where we were ever dealing with your sire. We had no idea what we were walking into when we were called upon to find you. We had no idea what we were going to find because it had been days since you'd been seen. We had no idea what condition you were going to be in after we found out you were also being chased by shifters then happened upon the scene where you were attacked. We had no idea where your mind was going to be because at that point you had never been fed and were grievously injured. The truth is, Isabella, had you been anyone else, there is a very good possibility you would not have left that clearing alive, and not due to a lack of trying. All avenues are exhausted before before a newborn is killed because it is never their fault they are in the position they are in."

It was that statement that had Bella cutting in. "Even if they wanted this life?"

Demetri nodded, but cocked a brow. "Even in such an event, but answer me this, My Dearest; after you woke up, did you then ask to become a chew toy for shifter cub?"

Making a face, Bella shook her head. "No... no I didn't."

Giving a jerky nod, Demetri licked his lips. "My point is this... newborns, infants, and even yearlings to a degree, are dependant on their sire or a subsequent caretaker to survive and thrive. If that sire or caretaker abuses their position, the one that suffers is the newborn, infant, or yearling, because they do not know any better. It is usually females we deal with mostly because males will fight back far longer than a female will, but both will eventually break, and once they are broken, there is very little we can do."

Uncrossing his arms, Demetri held his weight by one hand on the bedpost above Bella's head, using his other to cup the back of her jaw, and instead of tilting her head back to look up at him, he slouched down to her eye level and lowered his voice. "You were special because, shattered as you were, from the moment I entered that clearing, even before I snapped that wolf's spine in two against that tree, I knew there was nothing I wouldn't do, no length I would not go to, to piece back together whatever fragments you had left before destroying whatever, or whoever, was necessary to make you whole again."

No one she had ever met could melt her insides quite like this man. Bella was positive there was a level of lunacy when it came to Demetri's perception of that situation, but at the same time, the way he spoke of it was enough to actually make her swoon. Even still, it didn't stop her from questioning it. "Why though? I mean, I know what you said on the catwalk the other day, but..."

Brushing his thumb along her marred cheek, Demetri's head tilted as he interrupted her. "You made me feel fear, for the first time in... I don't even know, anymore it's been so long. To be perfectly honest, I had no initial intention of harming the dog in manner I did, but when I saw you cowering from it on the forest floor, it brought out that long dormant emotion, and..." smirking wide, "oops."

Face taking on a mask of confusion, Bella leaned slightly into Demetri's palm, bringing her own hand up and setting it on top of his on her cheek. "You just looked really angry."

Nodding gently, for the first time in a lot of years, there was an uncomfortable clearing of Demetri's throat. "That's what fear looks like in a male. When we get scared, and it comes across as us being exceptionally pissed off, because we don't like it. The feeling of fear is... astronomically uncomfortable."

Unable to stop the small grin that formed on her lips, Bella turned her face slightly into Demetri's hand, her eyes shining at the revelation. "So... you're saying I make you uncomfortable?"

Face taking on a leveled expression, Demetri leaned in close, and whispered, his lips a breath away from caressing Bella's lips. "The thought of losing you makes me extremely uncomfortable, and very bad things happen to arguably good people when I get uncomfortable. I threaten you little friend the way I do because as my mate, the only thing in this life I fear, is something happening to you."

It was very hard to not notice when his fingers settled in the grooves on her face, and though it was never done really intentionally on his part, it always made her just a little depressed they were there at all. Eyes losing the spark the had a moment ago, she sighed. "Then why make such a useless vampire your mate?"

Pulling back, Demetri moved his hand from cupping Bella's jaw to holding her chin between the side of his forefinger and thumb. Finally tilting her head back, he locked their eyes, a less than impressed look on his face and a force in his voice he hadn't used when talking to her before. "I could teach you everything I know about fighting, both offensive and defensive, turning you into a merciless killing machine. I could teach you how to properly use your heightened senses, honing your tracking ability to rival my own. Should you request it, I could mold you into a female version of me, and it would very easy. I can do all of that because you possess the ability to learn it. You are not useless, Isabella, you're injured. Do not confuse the two. I won't have it, and I don't ever want to hear you say something like that again. Are we clear? Beating yourself up over and holding something like what happened _to_ you against yourself is not only ridiculous, it's counterproductive to moving past it."

Letting a hard puff of air from her nose, Bella tried to pull her chin free, but was quick to realize Demetri wasn't going to let her. So, instead, she narrowed her eyes. "It's not something you move past, Demetri."

Once again, Demetri went straight for the bottom line. "If that's your stance then you have already halted any chance of recovery. You are allowed your anger. You are allowed your hurt, your insecurities, all of it. You are allowed to do as you wish and feel as you want, but you are not allowed to use it against me in such a manner as you're trying to. I fully understand you had a very hard couple of weeks, but no one is holding it against you, so why are you holding it against yourself? Using it to bring yourself down to the point you refer to yourself as something as... _infuriating_ as useless? Yes, you have physical limitations, but they will lessen over time. You have mental hurdles to overcome, but again, that will happen with time. Stop with this bullshit nonsense of everything having to be immediate. Nothing in this life is immediate when it comes to learning it. What you don't understand is, you're holding yourself back from accomplishing anything by convincing yourself that because things are hard you're useless. Do you know who's useless, Isabella? Athenodora, Sulpicia, and everyone with the surname Cullen. _They_ are useless. _You_ are an injured infant. There's a fucking difference."

It was almost like Bella was awashed with defeat as she looked up at Demetri through her lashes. "If I'm allowed to feel however I want, then why are you yelling at me for it?"

Dipping his head, he got nose to nose with her. "Because what you are not allowed to do is degrade yourself over something you had no control over. Did you want to be a vampire prior to being bitten? I'm sure you did, but this life comes with a price, Sýntrofos. The one you had to pay was exceptionally steep, I will give you that, but to wallow in the past is live there, and if you live in the past, there is no hope for your future."

Drawing her bottom lip between her teeth, Bella did actually take what he said to heart, and did give it a decent amount of thought before she responded, and it was very tentatively. "Do you really think I can do all that? What you said a minute ago about learning that stuff?"

Eyes melting, Demetri sighed. "Of course, I do, Agapimenos. Will it take time? Yes. Will it take more than it would have if what happened to you didn't happen? Again, yes. Patience is a virtue not everyone possesses, and repeated failures do get very frustrating. I understand that. It was a very long time ago, but I was a newborn once, too. I have been where you are. I do know how shitty the start of this life is; how difficult the easiest of tasks are and how irritating it can become. More to the point, however, I have been hurt before, injured so severely I could barely move. I wasn't a newborn at the time, but I do have personal experience with what you're going through. I have said it before, and I will say as many times as needed for it to sink in. All you have to do is trust me, and I can help you. You just have to let me."

There was no part of her that doubted a word Demetri said, but what Bella was beginning to realize was, thought he did fully understand newborns and the way the vampire world worked, he held next to no understanding of how _she_ worked. Over the course of the time she had been in his care, including the day he found her in the woods, she could count on one hand how many times he had actually spoken _to_ her, and not _down_ to her.

She wondered briefly if he simply hadn't noticed how much easier she was to work with following those times, or if he was just relieved she was finally listening, but dismissed the thought near immediately. She supposed it didn't really matter either way. It wasn't like she had ever told him, even though he did tell her numerous times that he didn't have the ability to read her mind, and she would actually have to tell him if something bothered her. It was her greatest flaw in her opinion of herself. She didn't like to talk about things like that, because time and time again, it was always eventually used against her.

It's not that she didn't trust him, though she was sure she didn't have as much in him as he wanted her to have, but all she could focus on was the last time she opened up to a vampire, really bad shit happened that was going to affect her for the rest of her unnatural life.

She also knew she wasn't really being fair, because she did talk to Peter. The difference between him and Demetri though, was Peter didn't hide behind a wall. He actually opened up to her, and it didn't take pissing him off to get him to do it. Maybe it was because they were closer in age, and the worst shit Peter had ever done in his entire life was damn near public record. Maybe it was because he understood age didn't automatically deserve the respect almost every single vampire in Volterra demanded. Or, maybe it was the fact he already knew most of the details of their conversations and she just had to fill in the blanks.

Whatever the case may have been, this was the most open and direct Demetri had ever been, and with a lick of her lips, she decided to see if he would actually give her a reason to trust him as he wanted her to. "What happened?"

There would be no way around coming clean and divulging the story eventually, he knew that. It wasn't something he liked to talk about it, and there were only three people that knew it happened. Well... two if the twins did what they were told.

Knowing he was the one that opened the door, he swallowed the well rehearsed response of that being a story for another day, and released his mate's chin. His movements were slower than normal as he reached up a hand to remove his tie. Shrugging out of his jacket and unbuttoning his vest, he sighed through his nose as he tossed both articles of clothing over the end of the chase and began the story of the worst thing he could ever recall happening to him.

"I spent... far more time with my sire than I should have. I was still with him until just under my century mark, soaking up everything he had to offer. As a teacher, my sire was... extraordinary, and I would return to him from time to time over the years that followed for that purpose because, as anything else, well... he was pretty much unless." Pulling his shirt from his pants, he began to unbutton, looking his mate in the eyes. "He is a coward for the mouth he can't help but run, leading to situations that don't need to happen, and others are the one to suffer for it. It's always the youngest that suffers for the misdeeds and stupid decisions of those that are supposed to know better."

Bella watched as Demetri removed his shirt, throwing it to join his jacket and vest, and her eyes widened to anime sized when she saw his back. She tried to figure out how she missed it the last time she saw him without a shirt, but was quick to remember she had been looking at the floor when he went to his closet to get her some of this clothes to wear, and then was looking at her shoulder when he went to his bathroom to retrieve the tweezers, so she never actually saw him from behind.

From his left shoulder blade, diagonally across his back, and down to the back of his hip were five scars she would recognize anywhere. Hand covering her mouth, her breath came out in a hard huff. "Those are..." They weren't laid open like hers were. They looked like surgical scars.

Looking over his shoulder, Demetri's face was expressionless, and his voice flat. "Cats." Turning back to face his mate head on, Demetri crossed his arms, though it didn't cover most of the other scars he received that day that littered his lower abdomen. "The Nile River Valley, the border of Egypt and Sudan specifically, is infested with the furballs, and where I was raised, though Amun's territory encompasses the entire valley. I was... three hundred and five, give or take. It was getting dark, so we left the den to feed, but before we reached where we were going, we had a little run in with a pride that was new to the area. It's a known fact that shifters and vampires are not, and will never be, friends. They are the counter to us, designed with the sole purpose of killing our kind.

"Male vampires are extremely territorial, and don't like to share what they see as theirs. Finding out a group of cats had just moved in a little too close to his actual den, Amun picked a fight with the cats. Now, it was four of them, and the two of us. The odd should have been relatively even, and they would have been had Amun not turned tail and ran the moment he could."

Jaw dropping, Bella actually choked on the words. "He left you to face them yourself?"

Demetri merely shrugged. "I told you, he's a coward, and a very well documented one at that. Now, prior to this night, I had only ever had one other run-in with a shifter, and nothing happened. She was pregnant and couldn't shift; though that certainly didn't stop her from running her mouth. I was still very young at the time, and still had access to my human morals. Her pregnancy, however, wasn't the only reason that didn't come to a fight. To this day I still don't relish the thought of harming a female, but I will if necessary. Back then, I wouldn't even raise my voice to one. So, the fact that feline shifters are almost exclusively female put me in a very difficult position."

Falling silent for a moment as he shifted his lips back and forth as the memory played before his mind's eyes, Demetri hummed in the back of his throat before he refocused his eyes and returned them to Bella's. "I killed two and was able to injure a third before that happened, the last of my humanity dying with them. I don't remember much following the pain, or how long I laid there, slowly being covered by sand as gentle breezes blew through the area, waiting for Amun to come back. Found out several years later he just... left, running to a different den of his in a different country entirely. That was the last time I saw him until today, my final memory of him being that of watching him leaving me to die... because of him."

Both of Bella's hands were brought up to cover her mouth, her eyes itching and glossed over. Her voice, however, held the tears her eyes wouldn't shed. "That's horrible."

Demetri, however, simply made a face of indifference as he uncrossed his arms and hooked his thumbs in the front pockets of his slacks. "That was a long time ago, though admittedly the vampire that crawled out of the sand was certainly not the same one that went under it. However, it does lend me a very unique insight into what you're going through."

Slowly lowering her hands, Bella slowly shook her head. "That's how you... why do you do that?" When her answer came in the form of a questioning expression, clearing asking she was talking about, her eyes crinkled in the corners. "When you answer my questions, it always sounds rhetorical, but it not, is it? You know a vampire can't do what amounts to bleeding to death, because you would have if we could. You know our bodies can overcome mind boggling injuries, because yours did. There isn't anything rhetorical about anything you've ever told me, is there? It's all been your actual experiences."

Shifting his eyes to the ceiling for a long moment, Demetri clicked his tongue as he looked back. "You don't live as long as I have without having a few of those."

Face hardening, Bella actually snapped at him. "Demetri."

To which, he lifted a brow. "What?"

Completely irritated, borderline angry, Bella glared. "Why won't you talk to me about it?"

"Because I don't talk to anyone about it. But, if you want to talk about scars, let's talk about yours. I can figure out the basics easily enough, but let's talk specifics on how you received yours."

Bella was quick to shake her head. "I don't want to."

Demetri merely leveled her with a look. "Then how can you hold against me not wanting to talk about mine? They're healed, and no longer a hindrance. Just a very permanent reminder of the worst day of my life."

It was nearly physically painful for Bella to bite back her response.

Demetri, on the other hand, just lifted a hand, twirling a finger to tell Bella to turn around. Stepping closer to her, he went back to loosening her dress so he could help her remove it, though he did have one last thing to say on the matter. Lowering his head, he spoke low in her ear. "I will say one last thing, though; that was the last fight I ever lost."

It was, too. He hadn't been lying when he said he didn't know how long he laid in the sand, left to die by his sire, and for dead by the cats, but the amount that had accumulated on top of him led him to believe it had been a while. Most of it, he wasn't even aware of his surroundings, knowing nothing but the fire that raged in his back as his body furiously worked to stave the loss of venom and rebuild a lot of skin. Not an easy task he would assume when one is made of stone, but regardless of that, when he was able to move again, it was another very long time before it was done without difficulty.

It had taken him far longer than it ever had in the past to return home, the trips prior merely being daunting in the distance department. That was one of the shorter lengths he needed to travel, but it took the longest time. Karpathos Island being as small as it was, there were no other vampires present, making it very easy for him to take the steps of establishing his own territory in the place he was born and raised as a human after the first time he left his sire. While it was true by the time he first returned 90 years after he went missing, his parents were long since gone, and most of his siblings as well, there was still one living in the house he was born in. His baby sister, only being five at the time, was young enough to still be alive. She was old enough when he went missing to remember him, and even at her exceptionally old age when he came back, she knew who he was because he had never changed.

This was before Aro came to power over the ever growing vampire population, so the rules and laws didn't exist, and exposure wasn't yet a crime. This being the case, he did nothing wrong when he remained at his sister's side for the handful of months she remained alive, telling her the stories of what happened to him and hearing of her life as well. While at first he was devastated to learn his parents never moved past his disappearance, refusing to believe he was dead because his mother 'would have known if he was', he did find a nearly psychopathic level of humor in being told he had a grave.

Also during the time he spent with his sister, he had gotten to know his remaining nieces and nephews, their children, and their children's children; every single of them knowing not just who he was, but what he was. This being the time of Zeus and the Gods of Mount Olympus, it was never questioned. It was merely blamed on Hades and dismissed just as quickly.

He did occasionally leave though, sometimes to return to his sire, sometimes just overtaken with wanderlust as what happens to a covenless vampire, but he always came back; watching over his family and welcoming the new generations, and them welcoming him back every time with open arms and a party befitting a God.

It was during one of his vanishing acts he sustained that life altering injury, not gone two years before it happened. His family being human, had no idea what to do when he was discovered washed ashore, but that didn't stop them from doing whatever they could to help him recover. Since they didn't know better than to blame his species on a very vengeful, not yet known to be mythological, God, they crossed so many lines to nurse him back to health, sacrificing human after human until he was able to better care for himself.

It was during this overly drawn out recovery period he finally went to his grave site for the first time, finding not just his own, but the final resting place of his entire bloodline. Looking down the mountain from the cemetery, he could see the family estate, and that was where he remained until he could move without difficulty. The the slashes on his back were painful physically, the far harder thing to do was to allow himself to fade away into nothing more than a family legend. He would hide anytime someone was brought to join the dead, leaving them to outgrown the knowledge of what they did for him. He watched from high as the world below changed, evolving a rabidness to protect them all from everything he learned lurked in the shadows. When the last one that knew he was real was gone, so was he. However, he never allowed another supernatural to move into what would always be his home.

Even now living in Italy, he never let his presence completely vanish from Karpathos, all but ensuring his human relatives lived and died without dealing with the exploded vampire population, because no one wanted to fuck with him.

No one wanted to fuck with him, because after that experience with the felines, he got very angry, and once he left the small island of his human days, he went hunting. He didn't just track down the cat that marred his back, but every last person she was related to, destroying any chance of a repeated performance or facing off with someone looking for revenge. While dancing across his territory, Demetri had considered tracking down Amun as well, but for whatever reason, decided against it. He had just slaughtered seventy beings without blinking, so perhaps it just came down to his inner demon being satisfied for the time being.

It was roughly 300 years after Demetri had what he himself would one day describe as having little more than temper tantrum that he met Aro for the first time in the south of France. It would be another 50 years and two more run-ins before he gave the man the time of day, and another decade on top of that before he agreed to aid the man in his quest for vampire domination, though at the time it was described as something far different than it would one day become.

Demetri wasn't stupid. Though it took a decent amount of time to learn what Aro was able to do when he touched someone, it took none at all for the implication to sink in, and from that moment on he was perfectly aware the asshole had used his past against him. He said all the right things to pique the tracker's interest in his cause, making promises that shockingly enough did come true, though mostly only because Demetri was the one that kept the ones that were made to him.

This being the time before Aro had the kind of fire power he has now, he had no way to keep those that didn't want to continue to follow him in line. Though he did have mostly all gifted vampires, it would still a couple of centuries before he acquired the Twins and turned Felix, making it easy to come and go as one pleased. He also didn't have the Volturi's permanent den in Italy just yet, so there was little in the way of incentive to hang around, and Demetri didn't until Felix came into the picture. At that point, Demetri was nearing his first millennia, and the back and forth between a nomadic life and being part of coven with a leader that manipulated him for his own use had a very rippling effect on the tracker. His trust in others was already fragmented by what his Sire did, then shattered completely when he discovered Aro's little secret.

Felix, however, made it to so Aro's tricks weren't a complete turn off in lending his talents to the fuckwad. The mammoth a man was, in Demetri's opinion, actually a genuinely good person, and because of that, Demetri became determined not to allow Aro to do Felix, what Amun had done to him. Plus, he was bored, honestly. He was pissed off at the world, and very, very bored; which for a vampire with his laundry list of accumulated talents, was very dangerous. And a very dangerous vampire was very attractive one to Aro.

Which brings things to more present day, where Demetri was literally allowed to do whatever the fuck he wanted without fear of punishment, because there was no one that could actually punish him. He never taught any singular person what all he was capable of doing, keeping more than a handful of unknown tricks to himself. Jane's little gift was a laughable experience to someone almost sliced in half by a shifter, and Alec had a gift anyone could see coming. Everyone else was just flat out terrified of him, because he made sure they were by selective killing.

Demetri's entire life led him to where he was now, biding his time before he settled the score he had with Aro for the stunt the fucker pulled on him all those centuries ago. It was really only a matter of time at this point before someone forced his hand because now he had something to lose he never had before.

His position within the Voltalian coven didn't mean shit to him. He knew the only reason he was offered it to begin with was to keep him around because there was nothing to tie him there if he didn't want to be there. He could leave at point of his choosing and never look back. Not a single vampire there had a venomous connection to him, and it was astronomically difficult to earn his respect. The very few that accomplished that task he would admit he would miss if he left or mourn if they died.

The bottom line, however, was the only person in the world Demetri gave any kind of a crap about was his mate, and he would be damned a second time if she was attempted to be used as a pawn in Aro's games. He wasn't talking tricks the day he brought Bella home when he 'reminded' Aro who really ran shit within the Volturi. Demetri had literally beaten the guards into his submission while Aro never so much as lifted a finger. Not only did the most feared group of vampires in the supernatural world submit to Demetri out of fear of recourse if they didn't, but the vast majority of them also owed him their lives due to him coming to their rescue, some on multiple occasions; something that, too bad for Aro, was taken very seriously.

Putting everything out of his mind and focusing on his mate in front of him, he crouched at he gently eased her gown over her hips and down her legs, moving it out of the way as she stepped out of it. Once it was clear of her feet, he stood, carrying her dress over to the mannequin that was placed in the corner between her closet and desk. Tightening the lace on the back to keep it in place, he turned back to his mate, a smirk on his lips, fire in his eyes, and rubbed his palms together.

"Now, is there anything else I can help you with?"


	19. Chapter 19

**So... it's been a while, hasn't it? I offer no explanation, and I can't promise I'll update again soon. But, just so you know, everything I have started will eventually be completed. It's just gonna take a lot more time.**

 **Until next we meet  
Speklez**

 ***xXx***

"Don't you pay them no mind, Sugar." Watching as the newborn cast her eyes towards her, the embarrassment she felt shining in the red depths, Charlotte shook her head. "They just jealous, Darlin', and you ain't got nothin' to be embarrassed about. Them fellas jealous they ain't ever made a lady scream like that, and them ladies jealous they ain't ever been fucked good and damn proper. That ain't your fault."

Groaning in the back of her throat, Bella dropped her head and crossed her arms. "I thought it was bad being stared at because of the scars, but now I'm going to have to live the rest of my life in hiding." Only slightly turning her head, Bella once again looked at Charlotte. "I didn't even realize I was that loud."

Snorting hard, Char laughed. "Honey, that was the fuckin' point. That first time after accepting a male's mark ain't about love and devotion. It's all about stakin' a claim, lettin' any other fella 'round know what they up against if they get it in they head they want that female. It's about showin' their lady what she gonna get if she sticks around. There a lot of males here, Darlin', and a lot of 'em ain't mated. That's a lotta pressure for a newly mated male to deal with. Especially when his lady brand new like you and don't really know what she wants; only what she don't."

Once again shaking her head, Bella sighed as she dropped her arms. "Why did I ever want to be a vampire? This species is fucked up."

Giggling quietly, Charlotte grabbed Bella's wrist, pulling her to a stop and turning the newborn to face her. Letting go and then setting her hands on Bella's shoulders, Char looked her in the eyes. "We're driven by instinct, Sugar. Ya see, outside the basics, us ladies really only got one, and that's lookin' out for number one," pointing to her chest, "which is ourselves. Deep down under our skins, we some snotty, selfish bitches, always lookin' for bigger, better, and greater than what we already got; even if that fella spoken for, and no matter how good we already got it. We got no fucks ta give on that account. I ain't too big to admit I done it when I met Demetri, and I know you can't stand there and say you ain't done it with Pete."

There was a hard cringe on Bella's part as she averted her eyes and looked at the ceiling. If she could blush, she would have certainly put her human self to shame with how red her cheeks would have been. She had, on several occasions, found herself considering the differences between Demetri and Peter, and but never at any point had she ever seen Peter the way she saw Demetri. If she had to put a label on it, she would compare him to being an overprotective big brother. Almost as a footnote to the thought come the fact that Peter's overprotectiveness didn't hold a candle to Demetri's, but then again, no matter how she might have compared the two, in her opinion, Peter didn't hold a candle to Demetri in general.

It really came down to the fact that she had two very different relationships with two very different guys.

Unable to make eye contact with someone who was quickly becoming her best friend, Bella frowned as a sigh slipped passed her lips. "I don't mean to."

Charlotte, however, just shrugged. "And I don't care thatcha do." Watching Bella's eyes snap back to hers, she smiled at the now overly confused infant. "Take a gander at this from my perspective, Sugar. Hadja not done it that first time, my fella woulda been stick in a cage under this place for three quarters of a millenia. Since ya done whatcha did, and saw somethin' in him ya needed in ya life, that didn't happen. And, since you ain't the type ta step on another lady's toes, I didn't lose him to service ta the guard, neither. So far as I'm concerned, you go right on ahead and let yaself off the hook for that particular comparison. As far any other time, it ain't really all that big a deal. I know you got sumthin' special with that fella a yours, so I know I ain't got nothin' ta worry about. Sides; just cause we think it don't mean we gonna act on it, and it ain't like we can help it when a man payin' attention to us. Like I said, no matta how good we got it, we gotta assure ourselves we got it good enough."

After taking a moment to search Char's eyes for anything that said what she said wasn't how she really felt, Bella sighed as she pulled herself free from Charlotte's hold on her, backing until she felt the wall behind her, and crossed her arms. Lowering her eyes to the floor, her brows creased and a frown formed on her lips. Saying nothing, Bella let what Charlotte told her run through her mind, and nearly forgot the conversation wasn't over.

"Ya know, Dolly, you gonna be the first vampiress ta give yaself wrinkles. Stop thinkin' so damn hard and spit it out."

Taking another moment to try and figure it out for herself, Bella sighed again as she looked back up at Charlotte. "I don't want to."

It now being her turn to be confused, Charlotte crossed her arms and cocked a brow. "Don't wanna what? Spit it out?"

Bella's voice was so soft and so low Charlotte had to strain to hear her, but she did answer. "Need Peter, and I don't know why I do." Whatever reaction Bella was expecting, Charlotte to snort so hard the sound bounced off the walls wasn't it. Eyes snapping up to look at the amused look that settled on Char's face, Bella gapped at her. "What's so funny?"

There was scoffed snort as the answer. "You." Reaching up to rub her temple with the tip of two fingers, Char grinned. "For all the shit in this triangle situation you got goin' on with them two boys, that's the easiest part ta figure out. I saw it within the first couple hours a gettin' here. It's how they handle ya, and, suffice it ta say, Sugar, for the time bein', your scrawny little ass needs handled. Now, I like Demetri, I do. But that mother fucker got a stick shoved so far up his ass, he don't know how ta get rid of it, and you ain't yet learned how to deal with it. Peter, on the other hand, is the only one here that don't treatcha like a baby. He ain't scared a pissin' that fella off and can actually stand a chance a raisin' you right, and on some subconscious level, you realize that.

"I ain't got a single doubt Demetri can raise ya ta be a productive member of vampire society, and prolly betta than anyone else on the planet. But, there far more ta this life than followin' a handful a laws, and sometimes I think the vampires that live here forget that. There ain't no logical reason you over a month old and ain't no one workin' with ya on at least startin' to control that strength a yours, but there sure a hell of a lot a excuses when it comes ta that."

Once again a frown pulled at the corner of Bella's lips. "That's... not Demetri's fault."

Once again, Charlotte snorted. "I'm aware. I know exactly where the fault lies, but everyone here too damn polite ta say it, while at the same time being too scare a Demetri ta push you. Now, I ain't gonna debate the physical limitations. They there, and they gonna be there for a long while, but Honey, you ain't helpless. You got two vampiric legends willin' ta move Heaven and Earth ta getcha where ya need ta be. It's time ta stop makin' excuses, lettin' others make excuses for ya, pull up them big girl britches, and get ta work. Otherwise, when Peter leaves in a year, the only thing you gonna be good for is sittin' on ya ass with them two uppity bitches on the third floor and the occasional roll in the hay when Demetri ain't out runnin' all over God's green Earth."

"Charlotte, that's enough."

Both girls turned their heads in the direction of the less than impressed sound of Peter's voice coming from the end of the hall they were talking in, one with a drawn expression and the other with one set in determination. The latter was the one that spoke. "I was just..."

And Peter cut Charlotte off. "I know what you was just, and I said enough. You gonna make me say it again?" Peter watched as a look of debate passed over his mate's face, but after it vanished she shook her head, and he gave her a look that clearly said that was the right decision. Without looking away from her, he then spoke to Bella. "Little Darlin', Demetri lookin' for ya."

From the corner of his eye, he watched as the infant nodded and pushed herself off the wall, his eyes darkening slightly at the loss of some of the confidence in her step. However, he didn't speak again until she was around the corner, and when he did, he lowered his voice so only his mate could hear him. "Char, the fuck was that?"

Frowning in the face of Peter's annoyance with her, Charlotte loosely crossed her arms. "I was only tryin' ta help."

Genuinely shocked at the softly spoken admission, Peter actually jolted. "Help? Ya thought that shit was helpful?" When Charlotte nodded, Peter pursed his lips, looking up at the ceiling. "Ight... then," looking back at her, "I'ma needja ta explain sumthin'. What part, a tellin' a mentally traumatized infant, if she ain't perfect in a year, that the only thing she gonna be good for is an occasional fuck when her fella happens ta be in town didja find particularly helpful?"

Freezing in place, Charlotte's eyes cut to the side as she reran the end of the conversation she was having with Bella through her head. It didn't take but a moment before both of her hands flew up to her mouth, muffling the 'oh no' that came out. Eyes returning to Peter's, she saw a smile on his lips that was really anything but nice, and she dropped her hands to her chest, lacing her fingers together. "Peter, what have I done?"

Letting out a long sigh as she shoulders dropped, Peter closed his eyes as he reached up and scratched his brow. "I dunno, Sug." Dropping his arm with another sigh, he opened his eyes and looked at his horrified mate. "With that baby, it's really hard ta say. Best case, ya got the girl ta think. But... history says best case is damn near outta that girl's reach, and it's more likely you just made the already uphill battle we been facin' just a little bit steeper."

Closing the distance when Charlotte dropped her chin to her chest, all his irritation from a moment ago gone, Peter crooked a finger under his mate's chin, tilting her head back and giving her a tender smile. "Relax, Baby Doll. There ain't nothin' that can't be fixed. But, if you gonna stay here, I'ma needja ta keep one thing in mind. This Italy. It ain't Mexico. What you an' I know a injured infant capable of ain't the same as what most a these pansyasses willin' ta acknowlage, but it ain't them claw marks we havin' the issues with. It's everythin' else, and that takes a little lighter hand then rubbin' her nose in her mistakes. That tracka got his feet ripped out from under him when he found what he did in that girl, and, yeah he tryin' hard as hell ta get back up, but he gonna be all but useless till he do. That baby got war wounds, and you can't expect her ta just be alright 'cause ya tell 'er ta be. You was doin' fine until that last bit. Hell, ya mighta even gotten through ta her hadja just stopped while you was ahead. That girl's biggest fear is bein' useless, so do not, for the love a God, ever, feed inta that fear again."

Nodding against the hold on her chin, Charlotte let out a quiet sigh through her nose. "I'm sorry, Pete. I was just tryin'a give her a little push, ya know?"

Releasing her chin, Peter laced his fingers together behind Char's back, nodding at her. "I know it, but Sweet Pea, if you gonna push, ya gotta make sure you doin' it in the right direction. I been pusin' 'em both since I got here, and progress bein' made, but Jesus Woman, don't be makin' a difficult situation harder than it need be. Just keep in mind, choppin' someone off at the knees that already havin' trouble walkin' ain't gonna cut it, now. Y'all two got enough in common you should be able ta figure out how to ta push her, without shovin' her backwards in the process."

Taking a moment to consider his words, even though she agreed with what was said, there were so few occasions she was put in a position to fuck with Peter, Charlotte wasn't even slightly willing to let this one pass her by. A fake pout settled on her face, and a mock frown of hurt pulled at her lips. "Ya know, if you keep comin' ta her defence against me like this, you gonna make me think ya like her more than me."

The look on his mate's face, however, went straight to Peter's dick, and the shit eating grin that he was known far and wide for slid into place. "You cute when you jealous."

Trying very hard not to let her amusement show, Char scoffed. "Peter, I'm serious."

Using his arm around her to pull his lad closer, Peter smirked down at her as his eyes darkened several shades. "So am I." Scoffing for real now, knowing she was caught, Char shoved him away with an 'asshole', causing Peter to laugh as he caught his balance. Winking one, Peter settled himself against the wall, propping his foot up behind him, crossing his arms as his face became thoughtful. "She reminds me a you when you was her age."

Shocked stupid for a moment, Charlotte gapped at Peter, her voice airy and confused. "Really?"

A very tender and distant look entered Peter's eyes as he recalled his mate as a newborn, slowly nodding his head as he hummed in his throat. "Mmhmm." Eyes returning into focus, he licked his lips. "A tiny, innocent little thing that ain't got no idea 'bout the world around her, dealing with day ta day bullshit that just keeps gettin' worse, with a shockingly large amount of others that want her dead." Sighing through his nose, he then shook his head as he looked at his mate. "It's seventy-two years ago all over again, and I ain't sure I'm in any betta position ta do anythin' about it now as I was then."

Brows creasing and a real frown tugging at her lips, Charlotte wrapped her arms around her middle as she also thought of the day Peter took her away from the war. "But ya did do sumthin'." Looking at Peter through her lashes, she saw him raise a brow at her, and she gave him a small smile. "Ya got me outta it."

Making a momentary look of agreement, Peter then let out a much harder sigh. "Ain't like I can do that here, now can I?"

Having never seen Peter so torn before, and remembering that spark of fear in his eyes at the party when he looked at the baby he was protecting, Char straightened her spine and looked him dead in the eyes. "I think you need ta tell me what's really goin' on here, Sug." When Peter's response was a shrug, Charlotte narrowed her eyes. "You ain't fallin' for her, are ya?"

Not even knowing exactly what his face looked like, Peter knew for damn sure he never looked at his wife with such an expression before. "You bein' serious right now?" When his mate narrowed her eyes further, Peter rolled his. "No, Sweet Pea, that ain't it. I just... I dunno. It just... everytime I look at that girl I get this... nearly paralizin' sinkin' feelin', and... I know sumthin' bad gonna happen, I just don't know what it is."

Lips pulling to one side, Charlotte made a noise in the back of her throat. "Well, what them voices sayin'?"

Pure indulgence was the only way to describe Peter's face as he looked at his lady. "You don't like talkin' 'bout them voices."

Charlotte, however, just lifted a shoulder. "Yeah, well, I don't like seein' ya like this even more. So... what they got ta say?"

Unable to help it, Peter actually growled low in his chest. "That's just it, Char, they ain't sayin' shit, least not about anythin' important that would explain that feelin'."

It took a moment, but it was like a lightning bolt struck Charlotte in the ass. Eyes lighting up and her jaw dropping slightly, her hand came up to her mouth to try and catch the bark of laughter, but that didn't stop Peter from hearing it. Laughing outright, even under the weight of Peter's glare, Charlotte smiled wide. "I didn't think ya could get any cuter than I already foundja, but look atcha provin' me wrong." When Peter's next growl was directed at her, she giggled. "Petey, you so damn used to them voices tellin' ya what ta do, you don't even recognize your Saten given instincts anymore." Holding a hand up, palm toward Peter, she moved her arm in a small circle. "All that shit you feelin'? It's fight or flight, ya big dummy. It's what all the rest a us vampires feel when we know sumthin's comin' but we don't know what."

Pure and utter personal offence overtook Peter's expression. "I don't run from fights."

Charlotte, though making a face of agreement, crossed her arms as challenge entered her eyes. "I know it, but when was the last time ya got in one that ya didn't know the details of beforehand?" When Peter snapped his face away, not unlike a child told no cookies before bed, Charlotte sighed and lost the amusement in her voice. "Peter, I'ma make a suggestion, and you ain't gonna like it." Waiting until he was looking at her again, Char locked their eyes. "Ya need ta talk ta Demetri. That little lady is his mate. It don't matta if ya like her or not. It don't matta if ya like him or not. Your feelin's for either of 'em don't give ya the right ta keep shit from 'im."

Not even caring to stop the snort, Peter lifted a brow. "Ya mean Mr. Cocky?" The look he received from his mate was one that clearly said 'Pot meet Kettle', but he just shook his head with another sigh. "It ain't that I don't wanna, Char. It's that I know even without my voices ta tell me, he won't listen." Then, he dropped his arms to his side and his head back against the wall, looking at the ceiling. "Then again, if I had that sumbitch's particular reputation, I prolly wouldn't listen ta me, either."

Getting very irritated with her husband, Charlotte growled at him, catchting Peter slightly off guard when he looked at her and saw he was looking into black eyes. Charlotte, however, was done with his nonsense. "Looks like me and that Little Lady ain't the only ones with shit in common. Peter, you ain't doin' a whole lotta listenin' right now, either. You ain't got the right ta make decisions on that baby's behalf, and that's exactly what you doin' by refusing ta talk ta Demetri. If he don't listen, at least ya tried. See, Sug, you can only do so much because, your feelings aside, at the end a the day, Bella is Demetri's responsibility, not yours."

Giving his wife a leveled look, peter's voice was flat. "I know that."

Char raised a challenging brow at him. "Do ya? Cause you sure as fuck ain't actin' like it, standin' there tellin' me you gonna keep a whole lotta information he deserves ta know about his lady away from him just cause ya think there a chance he might not listen to ya, and it ain't right. If the situation was reversed, wouldn't you want him ta tell you if he knew sumthin' 'bout me?"

Eyes narrowing, Peter grunted. "Moot point, Char, cause the situation would never be reversed."

Smirking, Char clicked her tongue. "Don't go underestimatin' my ability ta piss off the wrong people, now."

Completely unamused, Peter levelded her with a look. "Woman, don't make me hogtie your ass and throw ya in a closet."

Letting out a soft giggle as she closed the distance between them, Char placed her fingertips against Peter's stomach, leaning into his chest as she looked up at him. Her expression was softer, but no less serious. "Just talk ta the man, Pete; cause if you don't, then I will. I know ya don't like 'im, and I know ya don't think much of 'im, but at least give the fella a chance ta fuck up 'fore ya just decide he gonna fuck up. He still don't wanna listen, then we can talk 'bout kidnappin' an Italian princess. Until then, though, you in enough hot water as it is. Don't go makin' it worse. 'Sides, there is a limit ta how far that little lady allowed ta stick her neck out for ya 'fore she finds herself on her fella's bad side, and that ain't a place any lady wanna be. If there any part a you that care about that girl at all, ya won't put her in a position ta have ta take a stand against either a you. She's his girl, but she got it in her head she owes you. Not me, not you, and not Demetri know that girl well enough yet ta know which side she'd pick."

A disbelieving expression settled on Peter's face as his lip curled. "She's pick his."

A brow smoothly slid up Charlotte's forehead. "You willin' ta stake your life on that? Cause that exactly what you'd be doin' if ya put her back against a wall like you plannin' on doin'."

Sighing as he slouched against the wall, Peter dropped his head, settling it in the crock of Charlotte's neck. Closing his eyes, he let his mate's scent calm his nerves as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly when he felt Charlotte's fingers glide through his hair. "I just don't wanna see nothin' happen to that girl, but I don't see no way ta avoid it."

With one last pass of her fingers through Peter's hair, letting her nails rake across his scalp, Char used both hands to pull Peter's face out of her neck, smiling at him when he finally looked at her. "Maybe you right, maybe you wrong. Only time gonna tell, but why you willin' ta waste what time ya got drownin' in a pitty party instead a usin' it ta your advantage? So what your voices ain't talkin'. Not like you don't know what ta do, you just don't wanna do it. She a baby, Peter, and no one betta at dealin' with hard headed babies than you... voices be damned. So, do what you was tasked ta do, and everythin' else'll fall inta place."

Something of an impressed looking smirk formed on Peter's lips, and he chuckled. "When you get ta be so damn confident?"

A much wider smirk pulled at Char's, and she snorted. "We a team, Pete. Only one a us gets ta be the girl at time, and right now, that's you." Seeing Peter's eyes ignite in a way she knew all too well, she knew she finally pushed the right button, and gave him the final push out of his mind and back into his body. "I been watchin' you over the last couple of days, and little by little, you been pullin' back and goin' easier and easier on her. That may be my fault, but she don't need another guard dog, Peter. She needs who you was the day you showed up, willin' ta do whatever it took ta get the job done. Stop lookin' at her like someone else's mate, don't worry 'bout me, and go back ta treatin' that girl like the one that got her face fused back tagether."

Pulling himself out of his mate's grasp, he reaced up and scrubbed his face with his palms. "But, she is someone else's mate, and you standin' right here. Besides, they weren't mated when I did that."

Not missing a beat, Charlotte, cracked Peter's upside his head, startling him enough to blink at her. Crossing her arms, her eyes narrowed again. "Stop bein' a dummy, ya big dummy. So the fuck what they mated now. It ain't like she gonna be the first mated female ya ever beat the shit out of, and it ain't like it'll be the first time ya done in front a me. This might not be Mexico, but ya can't act like Mexico didn't happen. Demetri got a vested interest in lettin' the lady do as she pleases, and I know she scared a losin' that arm cause everyone know it can't be reattached if it come off, but that ain't no reason ta pretend you ain't who ya are, and fuckin' act like it."

Giving her the same look he gave Demetri when he said much the same thing, he told her exactly what he told the tracker. "I don't do that shit no more."

To which Charlotte responded with a tone of voice she had never used when talking to Peter. "You don't wanna do it, but if you wasn't willin' ta do it, that little lady would still have a hole in the side a her face, wouldn't she?" Knowing she had him, Charlotte sighed through her nose. "It don't take no kind a intuition to figure out where the threat ta that lady gonna come from. So long them Cullens in this building, she got a target on her back. It's like ya always told me; desperate people do stupid shit, and desperate people with a grudge do stupider shit. Ya said the other night when I got here ya needed my help teachin' Bella ta defend herself, so, let me help. You ain't gotta do everythin' alone, ya know."

With a long sigh, Peter clicked his tongue, debating his options, but she was right, as she usually was. With that in mind, he sighed again. "I know, Baby Doll; I just don't know how far inta this I wanna drag ya. While I don't want nothin' ta happen ta Bells, I can't have nothin' happen ta you."

A tender expression settled on Charlotte's face, her chin propping against Peter's chest as she looked up at him through her lashes. "We been through worse, Love, and came out the other side just fine. You need ta have a little faith in sumthin' outside your head."

Wrinkling his nose, Peter grunted. "Don't you start that shit with me, Charlotte."

To which Char responded without missing a beat. "Then don't act like the world endin' just cause it's actually quiet when it's silent. Ya know, the rest a us function just fine without someone always tellin' us what ta do, and I'm sure you can too." The pair fell silent, then Charlotte, without meaning to, gave Peter another piece of the puzzle that was the newborn. "Ya know, Darlin', I heard through the grapevine none a the Cullen's gifts work on her anymore. The mind reader's never did, but Jasper could manipulate her and the pixy could see her when she was a human. Demetri's talent don't, but not like he needs it to no more with his mark on her neck."

Shrugging his shoulders, Peter clicked his tongue. "I know all that. Whatcha point?"

Charlotte cocked her head. "Your voices worked just fine when it came that baby 'fore ya got here... or, more ta the point, 'fore ya met her. The more ya get ta know her though, the less them voices seem ta know. You've known Jasper for 130 years, and he can't get around 'em, I'm your mate and neither can I, and she can do it without even fuckin' tryin'? Just seems odd ta me, that's all."

The only thing off in Charlotte's assessment was the fact his voices worked fine when it came to Bella before he met her. He was told to come to Italy with that piece of vampire skin, sure enough, but he never knew the reason why. As a matter of fact, he was positive he wouldn't have come on his own if he did, and instead sent someone else in his place had he known he was going to be put in charge of an infant as a result.

Even still, every mystery was able to be solved, and the mystery that was the vampire infant wasn't any different. The problem was, when trying to figure out a newborn that was a scant six weeks old, if you didn't know shit about their sire, you didn't really know shit about the newborn, and no amount of training them would change that.

Bella had a very Southern Belle personality, but that was merely the surface; a pretty package to what lies beneath. He wouldn't go so far as to call it a facade because it wasn't something she was pretending to be. Keep a newborn calm and happy, and their actual personality showed. It was when they got pissed off their sire came through, because that inner demon every vampire has is inherited. The level of depravity that demon possessed was dependant on the life experiences of the vampire it lived in and how often it was allowed to run wild, but in the case of an infant, the rules were different. Until their year mark, their sire was in charge, whether they were dead or alive, because it was their sire's demon, because that infant didn't _have_ life experiences.

It had never really sat well with Peter that Bella's sire was able to get close to Charlotte, much less get his hands on her, without him knowing enough in advance to stop it from happening before it did, but after he ran off with the red head, he never really gave the man much thought. Had he known he would one day be dealing with that son of a bitch's offspring, he might have come to a different conclusion, but dealing with the situation at hand, it wouldn't do to dwell in the past. He had gone over that interaction at least a thousand times since he met Bella, and there wasn't anything there he could use. It didn't last long, only enough to find out the fucker certainly knew how to fight, but the fighting ability of a nomad didn't lend itself to shit when it came to Bella.

The only parallel that he could see to be drawn between that nomad and Bella was the fact they both put his gift on the fritz. And, clearly, his gift wasn't the only one affected. There is literally no reason whatsoever a human should have slipped past Jasper, and also no reason Alice shouldn't have seen what was going to happen. Sure, the pixy saw the studio, but all the bitch did was tell Bella were to fucking go. The minute James set his sights on Bella and decided what he was going to do, both Jasper and Alice's gifts stopped working properly, then stopped altogether once James' venom made it's way completely through her body on day two of her change.

Everything Bella is, is connected to who her sire was. The answer to everything was in her venom, and what lineage she belonged to. The problem was, tracing back a vampire family tree was not an easy feat, more so if it's missing limbs, so Peter knew he certainly had his work cut out for him.

Deciding he was going to sit with this for a little longer, and resigning himself to a face off with the Major for a little more information, he licked his lips and smiled at his mate. "Give me three more days. If by then I don't sit the tracka's ass down for a chat, you go right on ahead and do it yourself."

Lip curling in the corner, Charlotte's voice showed her confusion. "The fuck is three more days gonna do?"

Peter's self-assured smirk pulled at his lips as he pulled his mate back into his hold. "It'll give me time to find out just who the fuck that girl's sire really was."

Nothing if not indulgent to her male's whims, Charlotte nodded, but pursed her lips in curiosity. "Them guards been lookin' for that information since Bella got here, and hadn't found out shit. How you gonna do it in three days?"

Smirk spreading and showing his teeth, Peter chuckled in the back of his throat. "First a all, ain't no one gonna say shit ta someone wearin' that crest. Too much of a chance they gonna land they own ass in hot water, cause ain't a single fuckin' nomad innocent when it comes to breakin' the law. We all done it least once, and you know it don't matta how long ago it was, you still gonna face the consequences a doin' it. Second a all, it's really hard ta get a grasp on what's goin' on in the world when ya stay in one place. I know way more vampires than these bastards here, and they more afraid ta not answer me when I ask somethin' than they are a keepin' they mouth shut when a Volturi asks the same thing. I'ma get ta the bottom a this; you just need ta give me the time ta do it."

Leaning heavily against Peter's chest, Charlotte looked up at him like he was the one to hang the stars in the sky. "You way more attractive when you cocky like this."

Dipping his head, Peter's lips brushed his mates. "I'll show you cocky."

*X*

Subdued would be a good way to describe Bella's body language as she all but trudged through the halls, unable to look anyone she passed in the face for a completely different reason than before. Her conversation with Charlotte was weighing heavy on her shoulders, but more than that, was the fact she couldn't argue with anything that was said. No one ever really liked to be torn apart like she had been, but in this case, it didn't really do anything but shore up in her mind a few things she already thought. She hadn't really considered herself helpless per se. She did know if she tried different things she would eventually be able to do it, but there was this voice in the back of her head, her self-doubt louder now than it was when she was human, telling her she would never be able to do it right, and she was so afraid of doing something wrong, of proving what she heard said about her true, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

She also couldn't bring herself to lift her arm and knock on the door she stood in front of. She had only been to this part of the palace once back when she first arrived, and had never had a reason to come back to it. Truth be told, she was paying so little attention to where she was going, just letting her feet guide her because they always took her to Demetri, she was actually a little surprised to find herself standing at what she was told was his personal office when he gave her the original tour of the grounds.

She wasn't sure how long she stood there staring at the wooden door between them, her thoughts getting progressively darker the longer she did. She had depressed herself so much after running herself in circles, she could barely look Demetri in the eye after he called for her to come in and stepped in the room. So, because she couldn't do that, she gave the space a onceover, and immediately realized just how much of his focus she took away from what had been his job for a very long time.

The desk he was sitting at was covered in file folders, the stack in the corner likely being taller than she was. On the walls were maps of different countries that were covered in push pins. Unlike the bookshelves in his bedroom that were full of books, the ones in his office were all but bursting at the sides with more files. The only place that wasn't covered in some form of paperwork was the small lounging area that had the same setup as the one in his room, which was two overstuffed chairs facing a fireplace, though there were a couple of folders on the table between the chairs.

While to her the place looked like a mess, if she knew what any particular file held, she was positive she could ask him where it was, and he could tell her exactly where to find it. Demetri defined the term organize chaos, and clearly, his office is where the term originated.

"Wow..."

There was light and airy snort from the vampire at the desk, drawing Bella's attention back to Demetri, who was leaned back with his feet crossed at the ankles on the corner of his desk, a folder in his hands, and his eyes scanning the pages. "You didn't think this place ran on sheer willpower, did you?"

Letting her eyes once again roam the room, Bella gave a shallow shrug in response as she crossed her arms and made her way toward the desk. "I never really gave it much thought, honestly. I had only ever heard of the Volturi in passing as a human, and since I've been here, I've only seen a couple of sparring sessions. I didn't know there was a behind the scenes amount of work to do."

A much harder snort left the nose of the Head of the Guard as he shifted his eyes from the folder in his hands to his mate as she leaned against the corner of his desk. "Out of my own curiosity, My Darling, now that you do, what do you think of it?"

Glancing again at the massive amount paperwork on Demetri's desk, Bella made a noise in the back of her throat. "I think it's impressive you're able to find time to have any kind of life outside this room, because this is insane."

Chuckling in the back of his throat, Demetri tossed the file in his hand onto his desk, crossed his arms, and looked his mate dead in the eyes. "Pick one."

Jolting straight up like she was kicked in the ass, Bella blinked at his offhanded tone. "I'm sorry... what?"

Shifting his foot so he rocked in his seat, Demetri tilted his head slightly as he looked back at his desk. "In order for me to take off the time I promised you, this desk needs cleared." Looking back at his mate, Demetri smirked. "And you're going to help me do it."

As unnecessary as the intake of air was, the sharp breath Bella took at the statement got caught in her throat, causing her voice to sound strained as she pushed it past the lump. "I... I can't."

Brows drawing together, Demetri's lips pursed. "And why is that?"

Jaw lax, Bella spit out the first thing that came to mind. "For starters, I don't know how."

Demetri, always having an answer for everything, had a ready come back to that. "That would be the point of the exercise. I'm going to teach you, so next time, you will."

Shaking her head slightly, Bella voice rose an octave. "But what if I do something wrong?"

Demetri just lifted a shoulder. "Then so be it. One thing the vampire race will never be, is short of opportunities to try again."

"But, Demetri..."

Leveling his mate with a look that bordered annoyance, Demetri clicked his tongue. "Hush." Hearing Bella's mouth shut with a click of her teeth, he let a sigh out through his nose as he uncrossed his arms and, reaching one toward her, grabbed her gently by her forearm and pulled her to him. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he lifted her feet from the ground, and twisting her around with the other, settled his mate in his lap with her legs hanging over the arm of his chair. Draping one arm over Bella's thighs and the other across the armrest behind her back, he looked up at her scared expression with a slightly gentler one than a moment before.

"Listen, Phisi Mou. You have a literal eternity to get things right. No matter what anyone has told you, vampirism comes with a learning curve, and right now is your time to learn. No one wakes up and knows exactly what to do and how to do it. It takes time, practice, and patience. This is your time to make mistakes, and you will; big ones, too. We all have, and many still do. Besides, as far as this whole thing goes, there isn't really a wrong way to do it. There is the long way, but just because something takes more time doesn't necessarily make it wrong. And, while we're on that subject, why are you so concerned about doing something wrong?"

Bella really didn't want to answer that, the conversation they had in her room the night of their mating ball before she found out about the scars on his back popping into her head. She also knew she didn't really have a choice, and it was going to come down to choosing her words very, very carefully. However, though she was able to avoid saying certain terms, the tone of her voice said them for her. "Because that's all I can ever seem to do, and I don't know how many more failures I can take before I can't take anymore."

Closing his eyes and lifting the arm that was behind Bella's back, Demetri rubbed two fingers along the bridge of his nose before propping his temple against them. Opening his eyes and looking at his mate, he licked his lips. "We really need to deal with the overlap between your final human days and the start of your new life, because this is migraine inducing. Isabella, My Darling, when you compare a human to a vampire, the differences are staggering, and when you have a group of vampires pretending to be human, the differences are even more pronounced.

"Now, I don't know how much time there was between when you found out what the Cullens were and when you were bitten, but it was clearly enough for you to get these series of impressions that I told you the day we met weren't right. We do fall, and when we do, it is far harder than we ever did as a human. We do fail, all the time, and in spectacular fashion. It's not the failures, Precious, that are the problem. Failing, no matter what life you're living, is necessary, because without failing, we don't learn anything. Besides, doing something incorrect isn't failing at the activity, it's learning what not to do. We learn far more when do something wrong than we ever do when we do it right. The only time you ever actually fail, is when you don't try at all."

While Bella thought about what she was told, Demetri decided to give her an example, and hoped like Hell it got through to her.

"Think about what happened in the gardens when Alec and I were teaching you how to get the upper hand and how to put some distance between yourself and a larger opponent. How long did it take you to do it properly, and how many different ways did you do it wrong before you got it right?" Demetri gave her a full thirty seconds to answer, but when she did nothing but shake her head, he smiled at her. "Those answers don't matter. What does, is you kept trying, and you didn't give up until you accomplished your goal. That is the difference between success and failure, My Love. Now, you, Isabella, are an infant, trying to hold yourself to the standard of an adult because you've seen what we can be capable of doing, but not taking into consideration how long it took each individual to reach the point they're at. They didn't accomplish what they have overnight, and neither will you."

Looking his mate in the eyes, Demetri watched as his words sunk in, but there was a shadow in the back of her ruby orbs that was far more telling than any words that may have come out of her mouth in response. The biggest issue she had was something he knew she would never willingly admit, but if there was ever going to be a time to move her past this mental barrier, now was going to be it. There was no accusation in his voice, but it carried a level of truth Bell wasn't ready for.

"You're not just afraid of failing. You're also afraid of disappointing your sire."

It felt astonishingly like her heart was ripped out as those words caressed Bella's ears, and she snapped her attention away from Demetri's piercing gaze and narrowed her eyes at the wall. It was the same reaction she always had when someone brought up James, and it never failed to piss her off. What part of it though, she didn't know. She wasn't sure if she was pissed off because she hated who her sire was, if it was because she missed him, or if it was a combination of the two, but just the mere mention of him set her venom boiling in her veins.

When she finally did open her mouth, there was a razor's edge to her voice. "I am not."

Demetri, however, disagreed, and in the most indulgent way possible. "You are, and it's normal." The smile never left his lips when she cut her eyes back to his, though his voice softened considerably. "My Love, we've talked about this before. For the first year of our lives, our sire is the driving force behind everything we do, because for that first year, what we do is their decision. Orphans, don't have their sire physically there, so they are left to live by assumption. You might not have known him well, but you did know enough about him to hazzard certain guesses as to what he would want of you, and there..."

Bella, having heard all she could take, cut in, hoping to end the conversation. "But, everyone refers to you as my sire now, so he shouldn't matter anymore."

Demetri smile wided, and challenge entered his voice. "But, I'm not nearly good enough for that position in your eyes, am I?" A very pained expression flitted across Bella's face, causing Demetri to sigh through his nose as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. "Legally speaking, yes, I'm seen as your sire. I am responsible for everything you do, and everything that happens to you. I am to teach you everything you need to know, though likely in a vastly different way than he would have. I am to protect you, provide for you, and raise you, all the things that fall under the umbrella of sirehood. I can replace him in every possible way, barring one, and that is the most important. I cannot replace the venom in your veins, and venom doesn't care about legality. So far as you're concerned, so far as any orphan in your position would be concerned, I'm little more than an unwanted step-father, because in your mind, the position in your life I'm attempting to fill is already taken."

One thing she was getting used to was having very unwanted thoughts pop into her head at the worst times, and this was no different. There was a spark of horror in the back of Bella's eyes as Phil's face flashed through her mind, causing a shudder to work its way down her spine. There was revolution in her voice when she gagged out a 'eww'. Looking at Demetri when he cocked a brow at her, she shuddered again. "I have one of those. My mother's second husband. His name is Phil and he is not a good guy. To my mother, he's great, but overall, he's not a good guy, and you're nothing like him. He's mean, abusive, and I'm pretty sure a sexual predator. He was the reason I moved to Washington in the first place. You cannot get much farther from Florida than that."

Brow rising a little higher on his forehead, Demetri hummed in the back of his throat. "Is that so?" At Bella's nod, he took a moment to consider what the backlash would be for a very bloody, very public murder for something that happened at least six months ago, Demetri then cocked his head, changing the subject for what would amount to his own good before he did something incredibly foolish. "Regardless, this all comes down to a very simple truth, My Darling. You have a sire, and whether large or small, there is a part of you that is resentful of my attempts to do his job."

Quick to shake her head, Bella went on the defensive. "No there isn't. I don't resent you at all."

Demetri just shrugged at her. "You do, and I didn't expect any different when I did what I did in the woods. It shows itself in your inability to trust me to do anything outside of keeping you alive and keeping you fed. Any time I try to do anything to build a basic foundation with you, you're fighting against your instincts because your instincts are telling you I'm doing it wrong. So, instead of continuing to get no where, we're going to change a few things, and try something else. That something else, is playing the game your sire intended to be played when he bit you."

A frown pulled at Bella face as she scratched at one of slash marks on her cheek. "You are aware that playing his game was what lead to me getting hurt, right?"

Bella watched as Demetri's eyes went flat black in less time than it took to blink, an inferno igniting in the onyx depths. It was his voice more than anything that sent a near thrill through her veins, and lit her venom on fire as he leaned closer to her. "And I dare any shifter on this planet to try that shit again."

Flattered in ways she couldn't figure out, Bella cleared her throat as she felt her cheeks heat up in a blush that would never show itself. "And you're sure that's a good idea?"

Snorting hard as he dropped back against his seat, Demetri scoffed as his eyes cleared and turned red once again. "Certainly not on the part of the shifter."

Giggling without meaning to, Bella grinned as she shook her head. "No, I mean me going with you when I'm not allowed to leave the grounds."

Licking his lips, Demetri clicked his tongue. "You're right; you're absolutely not allowed to leave the grounds..." Uncrossing his arms, he pointed a finger at her. "By yourself. Since you'll be with me, I hardly see the problem."

Cocking a brow, Bella crossed her own arms. "And you're not concerned I'll do something stupid?"

Shaking his head, Demetri explained. "Maybe if I did it as your stand-in sire, but I'll be doing it as a mate, which is a vastly different position, and one that gives me a certain level of control over precarious situations. While your instincts will have you fight me every step of the way when it comes to the basics of sirehood, those same instincts will tell you just how bad of an idea it is to get on my bad side."

There was a grimace on Bella's face following that last statement. "I've been trying to avoid that since the moment I watched you throw Paul into a tree." Shaking off that slight tremor, Bella cleared her throat again. "So, you're really not worried I'll lose control and attack humans?"

Wrinkling his nose, Demetri shook his head. "Not even slightly." Leaning towards her again, Demetri smirked. "You don't have any control to lose."

Opening her mouth to retort, Bella was just as quick to close it, because there was no arguing that particular point.

Giving his mate a wink, Demetri leaned back again. "I am older than you and faster than you, among other things, so I believe we'll be just fine."

Blinking, Bella shook her head with an astonished scoff. "Wow... you're an asshole; especially since it's my understanding, I'm stronger than you right now."

Demetri didn't dispute that. "You absolutely are. Technically speaking, you're the strongest vampire in this entire den, because you're the youngest vampire in this den, but I don't need to be stronger than you to stop you. My experience with newborns alone is more than enough to counter that, but even without that, one of those other things is, I'm also smarter than you."

Demetri watched his mate's eyes narrow, but before she could chime in on his last comment, he spoke first. "My Darling, don't take such offence. As a human, I'm sure you were quite intelligent, your unfortunate choice in friends aside, but as a vampire, your ignorance is astounding. You have been here long enough, and spent time with enough others of varying ages to have had your every thought challenged, yet you continue to cling to certain ideals because they fit into a fantasy world you created that does not exist outside your mind. Your refusal to let go of that world is both ignorant and dangerous, and will only lead to disaster; something we've discussed countless times at this point."

Though she had been told not to take offence, there was so much Demetri had just said she found offensive, Bella didn't even know where to start with it. Maybe she hadn't been trying as hard as she could have to change her way of thinking when it came to vampires, but she didn't think it was really as big of a deal as he made it sound. Sure, her thinking not all vampires were monsters had gotten her into a jam or two over the last month and a half, but it was far from what she considered a disaster. Not softening her expression, but still not saying anything, she continued to look into Demetri's eyes, hoping to convey her irritation without having to voice it just because she wasn't sure she could express how fucked up what he said was properly, but as she did so, she saw him cock a brow at her, leading he to once again wonder if he could actually read her mind, because she knew why he did it.

 _She_ didn't consider it a disaster.

That was a major point in her thinking process because something she couldn't deny she had learned since she came to Italy was, what she thought something was and what that something actually was were never mutually exclusive. Those jams she got herself in herself in werent disasters for her, but they were one for someone else.

Demetri gave his mate a full five minutes to decide if her position was worth defending and if she was going to call him out for his admittedly less than couth explanation of her lack of current brain power, but when she looked away from him, her face losing its expression entirely and once again calling him an asshole, he licked his lips and sighed. "Self evaluation, My Love, is always difficult and it rarely gets you anywhere if your not ready for those personal discoveries. As an aside, I'm about to take my six week old newborn mate out into the world, alone, for the first time since she was attacked in the woods of Northern Washington. Being an asshole comes with that decision, and if you think I'm one now, just wait until we leave."

Frown reappearing on her face, Bella glanced at the different folders spread across Demetri's desk, her voice wavering slightly. "This sounds like a bad idea, and I don't want to do this."

Looking at his mate's profile, Demetri cocked a brow. "Oh, it's a horrible idea, but I'm curious at what point during this conversation I gave you the impression you had a choice." Once his mate's now shocked eyes were on him again, he leaned heavily on his elbow and propped his temple against the pads of his fingers. "Since you arrived here, you haven't really been given a fair chance at... well, basically anything. The first few weeks the priority was getting you healthy, and since then, you've largely been treated like an average newborn, because for the most part, you act like an average newborn. But, you're not, are you?" At Bella slight shrug, he smiled. "You're the offspring of a nomad, Agapimenos, and it's about time you were treated as the offspring of a nomad. You are not built to linger in one place for long, nor are you built to be around so many different bodies. For the time being, those two particular talents are not within your bag of tricks, so, as I said before, we are going to play your sire's final game, but we're going to play it by my rules."

Demetri's lips quirked into an amused smirk as Bella's head cocked to the side, a brow raising, and her lips pursing slightly. Her confusion was adorable, and shifting his position to drop his feet from his desk to the floor, he then sat up in his chair as his arms wrapped around Bella and pulled her against his chest. "There are two things your sire and I have in common. The first is we're both trackers, as laughable as I personally find his talent. The other is... we are both exceptional at playing games with the lives of others. He certainly hit a homerun with Cullens, though even were he still alive that would hardly be something to brag about when that coven has the combined brain power of a rotten banana."

Nose wrinkling at the comparison, Bella snorted. "Descriptive." Then, she began playing with her finger as she lost the amusement and her scent took on a sour smell. "And his game with my life? What about that one? How did he fare?"

Regarding his mate in silence for a moment, Demetri considered the several different ways he could answer that, because there were several different outcomes her sire could have strived for when he bit her. If he intended to make her life as a vampire as difficult as possible, well, there was no denying the fact he hit that ball out of the fucking park, but Demetri wasn't convinced she had anything really to do with his game. She was a pawn, sure, but for as many times as Demetri had fucked around when he was younger, and for as many games as played with other lives because he was board, it wasn't the human that held his interest, but the effect on the vampire that pissed him off. Watching the scramble to clean up a mess they didn't make to keep themselves out of trouble was endless entertainment, and when you know your fucked seven ways to Sunday, and the likelihood of survival was less than nothing, there was no reason not to shoot for the moon and just throw a handful of chips to fall where they may.

In Bella's case, the actuality was, however, that particular part of the game wasn't over yet because Bella was still alive, logistically speaking anyways, so as far as he was concerned, the ending was still up in the air. She survived the assault, and she survived the change. She had a future, and a prosperous one if Demetri had a say in it, though the journey to get there was certainly going to be a long one with mind boggling obstacles and pitfalls that were going to come out of nowhere. For the next several years, if not actual decades, it was going to be a dance of two steps forward and three steps back as the claw marks continued to heal, because she would learn how to do things with those laid open slashes, then have to relearn how to do it once they no longer hindered her in the way they currently do.

At the time she was bitten, there was no way her sire could have foreseen the involvement of the shifter cubs, nor would there have been a way to foresee the eventual involvement of the guard on her behalf. These were the two biggest reasons it was hard to say exactly what game he started for her when he bit her, but it was very easy to figure out the one meant for the Cullens. He was leaving behind a newborn that, even had she not seen the Cullens kill him, would never listen to them because of their different views on vampiric life. While the Cullens thought humans were something to protect, James clearly saw them as nothing more than toys to play with, but unfortunately for him, Demetri held much the same view. To the tracker, they were little more than an expendable necessity for the continuation of the vampire race, and outside of meal time, they meant nothing to him.

There were really only two things that separated Demetri and his mate's dead sire, and that was the the vast differences in their ages and the venom in their veins. Demetri spent far more of his life as a nomad than he did as a member of a coven, and since they shared a talent, there was a very good chance that somewhere along the family tree, there was a common thread since heightened senses could only be passed down and not something someone just obtained.

However, while certainly interesting to think about, it in no way lended itself to being helpful since both of them had long since outgrown their own sire's venom, making the possibility of he and his mate's sire being venomously related more or less a moot point. The points of note were they were both trackers, and Demetri spent more than enough time as a nomad to raise one, which in his mind mostly voided whatever game James wanted to play with Bella after he was burned and she was turned. She ended up mated to someone exactly like him, though by far more dangerous on several different levels.

His eyes locked on hers, Demetri left his thoughts and hummed in his throat. "How do you want the game to end?"

Once again left coming up short to a response she didn't expect, Bella blinked as her back arched and she leaned back so Demetri's eyes came back into focus. She couldn't for her unlife figure out why he would ask something like that when clearly, the outcome was already obvious. "What are asking me that for? What do you mean?"

A very dark smile formed on Demetri's lips as his darkened slightly. "I mean... the game isn't over yet, because if it was, we couldn't play it anymore. So... how do you want it to end?"

There were some things about Demeti she would never understand, and how he came to certain conclusions was one of them. To her, the game was over and she lost big time, but he was older than she was, and he knew things she didn't. While she didn't care for the way he pointed that out by flat out saying he was smarter than she was, it wasn't something she could dispute, because he always wiped the floor with her anytime they played any kind of trivia game, or he explained things in the most obvious manner after she spent hours trying to figure it out for herself and finally asked for help. It wasn't done in a condescending manner, but he knew she didn't have the best attention span, so his time was limited when it came to explaining something in a way she could understand it in a very short amount of time.

She took a moment to run the last six week through her mind, and realized she lost so much of who she was, of what she should be able to do, and she hated her sire a little more than she did a moment ago. She truly did believe the world was better off without him, even if she wasn't. Her life was _hard_ , and that wasn't just to do with the aftereffects of Paul's claws. It was everything else on top of that. She lost her ability to really trust anyone. However, after hearing several different stories from several different guards, including Peter, she knew that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, though she would really love to trust Demetri in the way he clearly wanted her to. She was jumpy and skittish in ways she never was before, which was more annoying than anything.

Then, there were the thoughts that she still didn't have a handle over. Peter had tried on a couple of occasions to take her out into the gardens to keep his promise of starting to teach her how to deal with them, Demetri even once taking up a patch of grass to watch. But, because she was made a member of the coven, the guards always interfered before they actually got anywhere, which led to rather heated arguments between a frustrated Peter and an annoyed Demetri over the, even to Bella, logical stance of how to punish someone for doing their job since the guard's number one priority was to protect the coven. It always ended with Peter storming off while calling Demetri a prick and Demetri calling Peter a child.

There was a large part of Bella that had her considering how much of that was the guard's fault, and how much of it was hers for not just opening her mouth and standing her ground. Sure, Demetri was part of the coven, but he certainly didn't need their protection when he was the one that trained them. The same could be said about Alec, Felix, and Jane. They were also part of the coven, but they didn't play the guard's games. When they interfered in their fun, they stood against them, and forced them to back off. Even Caius to a degree didn't suffer the guard's sniffing around his ass, and with little more than a glare, had them turning their own tails and running the other way. Marcus clearly didn't care whether there was a gaggle of guards around him, and Aro never went anywhere without at least three of them singing his praises with his nose in the air.

The difference she was able to figure out when it came to her and Jane was, Bella was a titled Mistress, on par with Athenodora and Sulpicia, while Jane was an active member on the guard, and little ball of fucking fury that no one wanted to piss off. Dora and Picia never left the third floor, and other than the time she was cornered by Edward, Bella had never seen anyone but the coven on the third floor, because no one but the coven was _allowed_ on the third floor, so they didn't really need the guard's protection since all the two did was move from one room to another depending on the time of day.

Oh, the guards never put their noses in the games of the coven, they would get their collective asses kicked, but Peter didn't have that kind of position, and with his reputation within the vampire world being what it was, even with Bella not actually being in danger with him, he was still seen as a threat, and therefore, they felt their interference was warranted. This included the time Demetri was physically present, which just seemed odd to her. It was after he bit her, too, so if anyone thought she was in danger, they were out of their fucking minds. Regardless, Demetri merely cocked a brow when the four random bodies placed themselves between Bella and Peter, and sat there in silence as he watched the scene unfold. When Peter rounded on Demetri with a 'fucking do something', all he did was glance at her before he shrugged and asked what Peter would have him do when they were merely doing their jobs. His exact words were, "Those are coven guards, whose sole purpose is to protect the coven of which she is a member. I don't generally make it a point to punish someone for no reason, Captain, so if you happen to see one I don't, you'll need to point it out." That time Peter called Demetri a pompous bastard, but the prick was certainly in his tone.

And, that wasn't the first time Demetri looked to her before he said something, but it was the first time she had gotten the distinct impression it was because he was waiting for something, though at the time she didn't know what it was. Looking back on it, however, she was positive had she actually opened her mouth, said she wanted to continue, that's exactly what would have happened, and she knew why she kept her damn mouth shut.

Though loathe to admit it, she lived in a near constant state of fear. She always felt trapped. There were always too many people. It was always too loud. She could never tell where people were coming from because there were always too many scents on the air. Nevermind she was always looking over her shoulder because she always felt like she was being watched and it was unnerving, but she was always on edge because of the fact she couldn't figure out exactly where anyone was. Even with all the good things she had going for her, she couldn't get herself to settle down enough to relax and enjoy it.

If there was ever a time she was facing a crossroad, this would be it, and taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Bella returned her eyes to Demetri's and, releasing her lip she had bitten into, she cleared her throat. "I wanna win."

Nodding slowly, Demetri tilted his head, but he wasn't less serious than he had been. "For that to happen, you have to ask yourself a question, and be honest about the answer." Giving her a moment to nod that showed she was paying attention, Demetri clicked his tongue. "Can you trust me?" When she immediately opened her mouth, he cut in before she could say a word. "I'm not asking if you do. I'm asking if you can change your perspective."

Lips thinning, Bella wrapped her arms around her stomach. "I don't know what you mean."

Rolling his eyes to the ceiling, Demetri let out a breath from his nose and, once he knew how to explain it, he returned his sights to his mate. "For most of the time you've been here, you've only ever seen me as your sire's stand-in, because for most of the time you've been here, that's exactly what I've been. What I'm asking is, can you take the step back and change the mental perspective that I'm attempting to take his place? Can you trust that I know what I'm doing, and even if you don't like something I have you do, there is a reason for it and that at the end of the day, it's all to your benefit? Do you believe you can do that?"

Once again biting into her bottom lip, Bella dropped her eyes down to her fingers, watching as she picked at a piece of human flesh that was stuck under her nail she had completely forgotten was there as she let her mind take on a life of its own; something we was starting to get get used to. It was still a little odd to her she could think of every bad thing that could happen while at the same time think of all the things that could go right while also making mental comparisons, but that's what she did, and in only a couple of minutes, returned her eyes to Demetri, having long since dislodged the decayed skin, and though there wasn't as much confidence as she would have like in the action, Bella did nod her head. "Yeah, I can do that."

Seeing at least a willingness to try if nothing else in his mate's eyes, Demetri smiled at her and tilted his head toward his desk. "Then pick one. We leave in an hour."


End file.
